Forgiveness
by DustyFoxes
Summary: Yukimura Seiichi's little sister has done a lot of things in her life. But as she transfers to Seigaku with her best friend, will she be able to forgive? Will the people she's hurt manage to forgive her? Will she finally find what she's been looking for? Set in high school and canon as far as the U-17 camp when the Black Jackets return. DISCONTINUED!
1. Prologue

_**AN:** _Hey, this is my first fanfiction. I only started watching Prince of Tennis this year and I've stopped after the Black Jackets return to the U-17 Camp. So this will be based only until then. It's set when Tezuka and the others enter high school. Also, constructive criticism is much appreciated and if anyone can advise on the ratings that would be a big help as well. Thanks! So here's the prologue of Forgiveness. Enjoy!

PROLOGUE

He first caught sight of her next to him, the captain of the opposing team, Rikkai Dai Fuzoku. She was watching the doubles match between the Platinum Pair of Rikkai and the Golden Pair of Seigaku intently, her lips moving as if she was speaking. However her companions seemed not to hear anything as they continued to watch.

She wasn't the type to catch his eye, him not being the kind of guy to look at girls at all. Not that he was gay or anything, he just wasn't interested. It was strange that he noticed her at all. Normally he would be too focused on the match to look at the opposing team.

She had purple-blue long hair, up to her waist and big blue eyes. Her pink lips were constantly in motion as she continued watching the match. Tezuka Kunimitsu on the other hand, continued watching her, wondering what words those luscious lips were forming.

His eyes raked over her petite frame. He wouldn't have been a guy if he didn't notice that. She had a very nice figure, he decided. She looked like she played sports and was very fit. He noticed she had a very slim waist and had slight curves. When he realized what he was looking at, he flushed and turned his attention away. Time enough to look at pretty girls after Seigaku won against Rikkai. Their team was even stronger than before, and this was the team that beat them in the National Championship the year before.

This was Tezuka's first year as captain of the team since he led his team to the Nationals last year when he had still been in middle school. He was feeling the pressure. The thing is, he never expected to be in Japan for high school. He had planned to go pro in Germany, but as things turned out, he was back in Japan.

Now was his first year of high school. Within 3 days of arrival back in Japan, he somehow had ended up as Captain of the tennis team. His vice-captain was a senior, Kuno Ryozo. The other 6 members were, Fuji Syuusuke, Oishi Syuichiro, Kikumaru Eiji and Inui Sadaharu from his old team and Matsubara Yoringa and Hojo Sotatsu, two seniors. Even though the team was lead by a freshman and most of the team were freshmen, they were strong and no one complained about the team.

He was glad that this team was strong, perhaps even stronger than the team he left behind. Doubles one was Hojo and Kuno, doubles two, the Golden Pair. Surprisingly, Hojo and Kuno were even better at doubles than the famed Golden Pair. The rest were strong single players.

However, Rikkai was stonger than he anticipated. The Three Demons were back, namely Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichirou and Yanagi Renji. Also with them were Niou Masaharu, Yagyuu Hiroshi, Marui Bunta and Jackal Kuwahara. The last member was a senior who nobody quite remembered as he never played. His name was Koga Giichi.

Although Tezuka had played and won against almost the exact same team the year before and had a stronger team than last year, he found the matches harder than the anticipated. Rikkai had suddenly become stronger. The other players had somehow gotten as good as or possibly even better than The 3 Demons of Rikkai were before and the 3 top players were even better than before. He wondered how they had gotten so strong.

After the friendly matches were over, Rikkai won all the matches besides one, the match of Tezuka and Koga,who only played because it was a practice match. Tezuka was quite upset, but his stoic face showed no expression. He stood by the side of the tennis courts, watching the other freshmen clean up.

"Tezuka-buchou" a light voice called him. He turned around to see Rikkai standing in front of him. The girl he had noticed was next to Yukimura and holding onto his arm fondly. He briefly wondered if they were dating.

"Yes?" Tezuka said.

"Thank you for the match." Yukimura said, smiling. "It was a good match. Much better than I expected."

"But…" She spoke up. Her voice was rather light and airy.

"Sshh… We'll talk later." Sanada said.

She pouted. Tezuka thought that was the cutest pout he had ever seen. But he shook the thoughts out of his head. If she really was Yukimura's girlfriend, he couldn't like her.

"Aa.. Erm..." Tezuka tried to form the words that would help him find out what her relationship to the team was, and whether she was off limits.

"Ah, Tezuka, this is my younger sister, Yukimura Arisa. She's helping us with our training." Yukimura said.

His eyes widened. She smiled at him gently. "Nice to meet you." They both said at the same time. Sanada frowned.

"Time to go Ari-chan, Buchou. The last bus will be leaving soon." Sanada said. A firm handshake with Yukimura Seiichi later, the team left. Arisa smiled at him over her shoulder as the team steered her away. Tezuka wondered at the fluttering feeling in his heart. He decided to ignore it. It was unlikely he would ever see her again, or so he thought.


	2. Chapter 1

**_AN:_**Hey, just wanted to thank everyone who has read my story so far as well as the people who favourited and followed it. Hope you like it. Here's the first chapter. :)

It was a year since he had met her. He had seen her once at the Nationals, where Seigaku lost to Rikkai at the finals. But they didn't get the chance to speak. He did hear of her. Apparently she was the reason behind Rikkai's strength. He remembered the day he saw an article about her in Monthly Pro Tennis, Inoue-san's magazine.

"Yukimura Arisa. World-class professional. She has been representing Japan in official matches since six years old. She's considered the World's Best Wild Card after winning 2 Grand Slams at 8 and 9 years old. She often plays in male tournaments and the extraordinary part is that she wins. She fell under the radar after 10 and recently resurfaced at Rikkai High School as their manager. Apparently, the Child of God is her older brother. We interviewed her today in Rikkai. Here are some of the things we've found out.

WHY HAS SHE BEEN MISSING?

Arisa: Well, after winning the grand slams in the male tournament, my parents and I decided I should focus on my studies. I managed to skip a year and this is why I'm in high school with my brother, even though I'm a year younger.

ANY PLANS FOR TENNIS IN THE FUTURE?

A: Well, I do enjoy playing tennis, but I mostly play for fun now. I like helping my brother and the other Rikkai Regulars. I've had so much training in the past that I can help them through their problems. I love the feeling of helping people.

SPEAKING OF LOVE, ANY BOYFRIENDS?

A: No, I don't have a boyfriend. My brother and his team are so over-protective, but I adore them. They're my best friends. They seem intimidating on court, but they're actually really sweet.

SO WHAT DOES SHE DO IN HER FREE TIME?

A: I don't get much free time. After school I train with the regulars for 3 hours. Then I go home and study for about 2 hours to keep my 4.0 GPA. Then if I have time I play some tennis with my brother or go swimming or jogging. Sometimes I hang out with the regulars as well, especially my best friends Masaharu-kun and Genichirou-kun.

WHAT DOES SHE THINK OF RIKKAI'S TEAM THIS YEAR?

A: We managed to win last year with a lot of work. I will be training them extra hard though. They can't slack off. *laughs* I think they are amazing players, but they have to focus. So we're upping training, we're working harder than ever, but we're having fun. I think the other teams should watch out. Rikkai is strong!

That's all we had time for, but as you readers can see, the secret to Rikkai's strength is strong. Keep reading Monthly Pro Tennis for more!"

There had been a gorgeous picture of her added. Tezuka kept the clipping in his tennis bag. He wanted to see her again, but he felt awkward every time he thought about her. Letting go of thoughts of her, he went to see his team for this year.

* * *

Oishi, his vice-captain for this year had everyone lined up. Regulars were in front as always. This year, besides Fuji, Eiji and Inui, Momoshiro Takeshi and Kaidoh Kaoru had joined the team. The last regular was Godo Mikio, a junior with a bad attitude. The only reason why he was on the team was because of his skill. Silently, Tezuka lamented the loss of his previous doubles pair. Now he had to face the problem that gave him many headaches in middle school. Who would play in doubles?

Tezuka turned to the 50 or so members awaiting his commands. He gave his orders and then the tennis club took off with their training. Oishi, instead of going to practice, came up to Tezuka.

"Sanada-san and Niou-san are waiting for you in the clubroom with Yukimura's little sister." Oishi told him. Tezuka nodded and walked off towards the clubroom.

"Puri" Niou Masaharu greeted him. He blinked in surprise. The girl he had been thinking about for the past year was sitting in front of him, curled up against Sanada and her face was buried in his jacket. He felt a slight pang at the sight.

"How can I help you?" Tezuka asked politely. Sanada untangled himself from her and Niou promptly took his place, holding her. Tezuka had yet to see her face.

"May we speak outside? I don't wish to bother you, but I have my reasons." Sanada said. He looked meaningfully at Niou who was stroking her hair and muttering things to her. Tezuka nodded and walked out the door he had just entered.

"I have a favor to ask you, from all of us at Rikkai, especially from Yukimura." Sanada began. Tezuka, stoic as ever, just nodded. "Ari-chan, she's been going through some problems at Rikkai. She was being bullied and threatened because of her relationship with the tennis team. So her parents decided to transfer her here, to Seigaku. We would like to ask you to accept her as your team's manager. Though we would hate for her to help you beat us, she cannot live without tennis. It's her life. And girl's teams just aren't strong enough to handle her. We have discussed this with your coach, and she said if you were agreeable, she would be fine with it."

Tezuka had never heard him say so much before, but it appeared he wasn't done. "I know you may have your doubts, but we from Rikkai are honestly pleading with you to accept her. This would mean the world to her and to us. She will also strengthen your team greatly. You'll have nothing to lose. Please help us."

"I have a few questions." Tezuka said. "First, why is she only transferring now if she's been bullied since last year? Secondly, just by transferring her here, doesn't mean she will not get bullied. Most people close to the tennis club have been threatened by our fanclubs, no matter how much we try to stop them. Thirdly, if she can benefit us so much, why are you asking her to, if so, you might just say goodbye to your National title."

Sanada blinked. "We only found out that she was being bullied yesterday. Niou was the one to find out. He found a note in her book when he borrowed it." Sanada passed Tezuka a much crumpled note.

"STAY AWAY FROM THE TENNIS TEAM IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE SLUT JUST BECAUSE YOURE SLEEPING WITH ALL OF THEM DOESNT MEAN YOURE BETTER THAN US FOR THE LAST TIME STAY AWAY FOR YOUR OWN GOOD"

It had all been cut out and glued onto the paper. "Apparently, this was from the beginning of last year. The fool didn't tell any of us, we had no idea. The perpetrators were smart. They hit only where we couldn't see. But the reason why we decided that for her own good she should leave was the fact that they had started cutting her with razor blades." Sanada informed Tezuka.

"Secondly, we believe that here in Seigaku, she will be safer because we hope you can watch out for her. At Rikkai, we have different classes for girls and boys _(AN: I'm making this up)_. So we cannot take care of her as much as we would like. Over half the incidents happened in class before the teacher was there. So hopefully that would be avoidable here in Seigaku."

"Finally, like I said before, while we hate the thought of losing to you, especially if it's because of her help, we love her too much to let her suffer away from tennis. She willingly accepted her bullying so she could continue to play tennis. We would never deprive her of that. She's Rikkai's Princess. And she's special to us. And besides, the stronger you are, the harder we have to work to beat you. So please accept her Tezuka-san. We're begging you."

Tezuka pondered Sanada's words. "Very well, we shall accept her as out manager on a trial basis for 2 months. If she cannot suit us as a team, we will have to cut her of course, but she may have a trial." He said.

"Thank you. You will not regret this. Also, this is from Yukimura, 'Please take care of her well, and love her just as much as we do. Treat her well with the kindness I know you have in your hearts. She is my precious little sister and I will be forever thankful if you can accept her into your family-like team.' Also, Niou is transferring here as well, and I hope you will play him in your ranking matches. He will also be a good addition to your team if you'll let him. But I know the regular spot will be determined by how well he plays." Sanada said.

"I shall take my leave now. Thank you again for your kind consideration. I leave my two old members in your care." Sanada bowed and walked away. Tezuka ran a hand through his hair and prepared to face his new teammates.

**AN: By the way, just want to say that my updates will not be consistent as I'm busy with school and exams. I can only begin typing when I'm taking a break so it takes a long time, even though I have a few chapters planned out already. Sorry!**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tezuka Kunimitsu walked into the room, unsure of what to expect. Though he had a large (and noisy) fanclub, he rarely dealt with girls, unless it was to tell them to keep quiet or to stop harassing the players. He never spoke to any of his friends' siblings and he himself was an only child so he never had experience there either. The longest conversation he had with anyone of the opposite gender had to be his mother. And even then, he only answered her questions.

He looked at the scene before him. She was sitting on Niou's lap and he was holding on to her. They were talking quietly and occasionally, Niou would stroke her hair or she would tighten her hold around his broad shoulders. Tezuka coughed and made his presence known. Niou immediately sat up, but she just buried her purple head further into his chest to avoid falling off his lap.

Tezuka blinked. "Yes?" Niou asked, politely.

"When are you transferring?" Tezuka was straight to the point as always.

"Tomorrow is our first day, ne Arisa?" Niou tried to get her to let go of him, but she just nodded and held on closer to the front of his yellow Rikkai jacket. Tezuka felt slightly annoyed as he noticed Niou called her so familiarly, without any honorifics, but he chose to ignore the feeling. After all, there was no reason for it. Right?

"Aa... Meet me here after classes. I have considered Sanada-san's proposal and I wish to discuss if further with you, Yukimura-san, Niou-san." Tezuka quickly replied to avoid any questions on his silence.

"She would rather you call her Arisa rather than Yukimura. She finds it confusing as she's the youngest in the family after all." Niou spoke for her again. She mumbled something which Tezuka couldn't understand.

"She says to ask all of you to call her Arisa-chan. She would like you to please convey it to the others." Niou translated. How he managed to translate that from 'mm-ggmmh-smm', Tezuka would never know.

He nodded left to go to the tennis courts. Before he got there however, he heard Niou calling his name. He stopped and saw Niou running towards him.

"Where's Arisa-chan?" he asked, curious to know where the girl was.

"I told her to go wash her face and wait for me at the gate. There's something I wish to speak with you about that I'd rather she didn't hear. It might upset her again." Niou said. Tezuka had never seen the Trickster look so serious before. He just nodded.

"Arisa, she's normally, very strong. She never cries normally, not even when she broke her leg. This is the first time she's cried in public since I've known her and it's been a long time." he took a breath.

"What I'm about to tell you, is only known between her and myself. She didn't want me to let anyone else know, but I think it's important for you as our future captain to know. Also, I hope it will help you see why she's so broken now. Can I ask that you do not tell anyone else of this, she would hate if anyone besides you knew." Tezuka gave his word.

"What happened besides the bullying and threats Sanada-fukubuchou told you is that they were threatening to poison her brother and her friends. They were the reason Yukimura-buchou's been having a hard time recovering apparently. They've been putting a toxin into his water. She only found out yesterday. That's when she came to me and told me. She feels responsible for her brother's ill health, even though she didn't know until yesterday. This is why she finally decided to give in and leave the school."

"Captain Yukimura is her role model. There is so much sibling love between the two. That is why she's finally broken by the bullies. So please, do not judge her from this one meeting. She hasn't forgiven herself yet. She's normally so happy and bright. I know in time she'll be better so please treat her well."

He had a grim air around him. Tezuka could tell that he cared about her a lot.

"I'm transferring here myself, to keep an eye on her, but if it may be, I might not be able to at certain times. Could you please also ask the regulars to take care of her and protect her? I know that you owe me nothing, but please consider it as a favour to me. Ari, she's incredible when it comes to tennis, but she's very broken when it comes to her social life. I can't tell you exactly what's happened, but she still holds herself responsible for things that weren't her fault. That's why the issue with Yukimura-buchou hit her so hard. It brings back memories of a time she would rather forget. So please, help me to protect her from herself. From letting people make her feel at fault again. I, in return, promise to give my full loyalty and strength to the tennis club and the school, if only she can be happy, I would do anything you ask of me. Please, Captain Tezuka, consider my proposal." Niou begged.

"Why are you pleading so hard for her acceptance, but not for your own?" Tezuka asked, looking into the silvery-blue eyes. Niou just looked at him.

"Because she's important to me."

"Ah, I see." Tezuka paused in consideration of Niou's words.

"I shall do my best to take care of her, and I shall ask the others to as well. I will also accept the both of you as important members of the tennis club, as a manager and hopefully, you as a regular, but the others may not be so welcoming. I shall speak to them of course."

"Thank you." Niou said and walked away, leaving behind a very confused captain. What on earth had possessed him to talk so much? While his conversational skills had greatly improved since middle school, he rarely spoke more than three sentences unless he had to.

After washing his face quickly, Tezuka returned to the tennis courts.

_**AN:**_I was so excited about getting reviews that I HAD to post this today. Special thanks to _**Frostfire613** _and _**Miss-Shadow**_. My homework literally was left undone for this. Oops... That's also why it's a bit short. And it would have been up hours ago except there was a storm so I couldn't access internet and I had to fill some forms for my dad so I _tried_ to proofread it... But no excuses. Anyway, I'd like to thank all those who reviewed, followed and favourited. This is for all of you. :)

By the way, I won't post a chapter for this fic for a few days as I haven't typed it out yet... Sorry! I blame distractions and my exams are coming soon so I need to study.. But I have typed out a Shiraishi x OC oneshot (I couldn't get online and procrastination to study hits again...) which I will be uploading once I'm done proofreading. It'll be up soon (hopefully). It's called _Told in a__ Day_ so if you're interested in an angsty-ish yet kinda sweet oneshot, do check it out.

So yea, _**Frostfire613 **_and those who are wondering but didn't review, I haven't quite decided the main pairing for this yet, but I think it'll most likely be a TezukaxOC as my friends all told me to make that the main pairing. :)

-DustyFoxes-


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Tezuka walked slowly back to the courts, pondering what Sanada and Niou had told him. He wondered what he would say to the Regulars. Would they accept the two Rikkai students, or would they dislike them. From what Tezuka knew of his team, most of them would be nice, except for perhaps Godo Mikio. That guy really gave Tezuka headaches. He wished that the previous seniors were still around.

As he thought, the guy who had been giving him all this trouble came into view. He had transferred to Seigaku from Higa Chuu and his dark skin stood out on the courts. He was a trouble maker, but he had won his Regular place in the inter-school ranking tournaments, so Tezuka could do nothing about it. The sly thing about Godo was that he never misbehaved in front of Tezuka or Oishi, preferring to bully the younger students when they weren't looking. He was slacking off in the corner, sleeping while the others practiced hard. Tezuka had to admit, he hoped Niou would replace Godo soon.

"Tezuka! Is everything all right? What happened? Does Rikkai want a match? What did they want? Do you need me to do anything?" Oishi was full of questions. "I'll tell you later." Tezuka said.

After practice was over, Tezuka told the Regulars to stay back. The other members went off, thinking that the Regulars had some competition or friendly match to discuss. There were many who were jealous, but they all left, not bothering to eavesdrop.

"What's wrong?" Eiji asked. Tezuka gave them a brief summary of what had happened to Arisa and the plea from Sanada and Niou. He did keep the poisoning to himself however.

"That's terrible! The poor thing! We must take good care of them both then!" Oishi said. The others agreed whole-heartedly. Their kind hearts made them feel pity for the poor girl who had been tortured so mercilessly.

However, Godo seemed annoyed. "She's weak. She should have stood up for herself rather than running away. What more, she's planning on taking the same position that caused all the trouble in the first place. Why can't she just join the girls' team anyway? She must be really stuck up if she thinks that she's so good. What a waste of space! I think they should just die if they suck so bad. And why does she need to bring her bodyguard anyway? She's so hopeless. I bet they're going to spy on us for Rikkai"

Godo was right about some things, such as the standing up for herself and even the managerial position, and the other regulars knew it. However, they were also not so blind that they couldn't see it had reached a limit. Even though they didn't know the whole story, they knew from the little Tezuka said, that she had tried to face up to her enemies, but failed. Also, they disagreed with the way he said it. It was going too far.

Tezuka spoke up. "She didn't ask for the position, her teammates did because they care about her and they know she loves it too much to not play." Everyone was surprised. Tezuka rarely spoke unless he had to.

"Nya! They ganged up against her too!" Eiji cried out.

Fuji opened his piercing blue eyes. "I think somebody's afraid that Niou-san will take his regular spot." he said, looking at Godo. His protests had made some sense, but the part about Niou had a different feel to it. Fuji would've put his favourite cactus on the line to bet that Godo felt threatened by Niou, perhaps even Arisa.

Godo flushed. "I'm better than that silver-haired punk! He's useless, a complete waste of space. He should just die! And anyway, I'm just saying she's a coward and we don't need her here in Seigaku."

Fuji smiled to himself. There was history between Niou and Godo. He would bet on it.

"Ah, let's just welcome them whole-heartedly and help her forget about the bad things." said Oishi, sounding as motherly as always. Godo huffed and left.

"Let's all go to the burger shop and we can discuss this further. I'm hungry!" Momo said. The other regulars agreed and they headed to change and eat together. Tezuka, for some strange reason not even known to him, decided to join them.

* * *

At the burger shop, after they ordered their food, Kaidoh asked Inui what data he had on Arisa. Inui took out his book and informed them that most of this information was from rumours as no one really knew all that much about the enigmatic girl. Apparently, Inui's friend, Yanagi Renji was a good friend of hers, but he refused to give her data to Inui. Inui said that there was a 67.3% chance that something embarrassing that happened to Renji that had to do with Arisa.

"Hmmm... Yukimura Arisa. Hair, purple. Eyes, blue. Height, 160 cm. Weight, she refuses to tell anyone. Known as the World's Best Wild Card or The Angel of Death for her astounding tennis skills. Also known now as Rikkai's Princess. Not much here about her skills other than she is very fast and accurate. Younger sister of Yukimura Seiichi. Birthday, 4th of December, same as her best friend Niou Masaharu. She is exactly one year and 2 hours younger than him. Began playing tennis at six months old. Joined and won first tournament at age 6. She played in the under 16 males' category" Inui read.

"Wow! That's amazing! She must be really talented!" Eiji exclaimed. Momo agreed loudly. "What else do you know Inui?" Fuji asked.

"She is rumoured to have joined the U-17 camp since age 5 and joined until she was 12 before stopping for unknown reasons, possibly to focus on her studies as mentioned in some interviews. Over a span of 5 years, she has won 2 Grand Slam titles, 5 French Open titles, 3 Wimbeldon titles, 3 Australian Open titles and 2 US Open titles. Last public match was winning her 4th French Open title at 10 years old and she was well on her way to her 3rd Grand Slam win. She's known to have skipped a year, putting her in the same year as us, but same age as Momo and Kaidoh. She studied at St. Rudolph, but not much is known about her time there. She's known to enjoy swimming especially at night with Niou-san. Due to her travels for tournaments, she is fluent in English and French as well as Japanese. She also rumoured to constantly beat her brother and the other Rikkai players in straight sets, even when they are playing their best. This is all I have." Inui said. The regulars were all shocked. She sounded too good to be true! To beat the regulars of the Rikkai team…And in straight sets, even Tezuka couldn't do that. 'I want to have a match with her' they all thought.

"I have also heard this one rumour, but Renji refuses to tell me anything about it. It is said that she played against the 3 Demons of Rikkai at the same time. She is reputed to have won 6 games to 4." Inui added. The passerby's were shocked to see the fountains of soda and food spewing from the regulars mouths at that.

"Hm... She must have a really fit body then… And she must be pretty too..." Momo had a dreamy expression on his face. "Pervert!" Kaidoh said, leading to another massive fight between the two. The older regulars sighed. They thought that the two would've stopped fighting as they had worked together for the past year, but apparently, that dream was too good to be true.

"Saa... Tezuka, what do you think about her?" Fuji asked. Tezuka blinked. "I hope she will be a good manager. Don't let your guard down." He said, getting up and leaving.

"He likes her." Fuji said happily to no one in particular. Inui took it down as data. "Don't make assumptions Fuji-senpai. Tezuka-buchou might not like it if it spreads around, especially if it's not true." Kaidoh said, remembering the black mood Tezuka had been in the year before, when Inui had spread a rumour about Tezuka liking Chitose Senri's little sister. He still had nightmares about that time.

"I know, that's why no one here is going to say anything, right?" Fuji's voice was as playful as always, and his smile was still on his face, but for some reason the Regulars felt a shiver running down their spine simultaneously. Fuji was scary.

* * *

Meanwhile, the girl they had been discussing so happily was with her best friend Niou. They were playing a light match, rallying back and forth.

"Arisa, I wonder what rumors they're spreading about you in Seigaku by now." Niou said; glad to see his companion looking a little less sad.

She won the point and pointed her racket at him. "You know that most of the rumors are true, and the one's that aren't don't matter anyway. I am my own person, not created by rumors."

He smiled. "I'm glad you're back, Ari. Let's show Seigaku just how strong you can be!"

* * *

_**AN:**_Sorry for the late update. I was going to post this earlier, but there was a storm so I couldn't connect to the internet. Sorry! Anyway, thanks to **_Frostfire613_**and _**yuhi zael**_for reviewing, and everyone else who followed and/or favourited this. Drop a review? Also, on a side note, I realised that the timeline I had for this didn't work with the interview in Chapter 1 so I went back and edited that. Instead of winning all the Grand Slams at 9 years old, it now is winning 2 Grand Slams at 8 and 9 years old. Sorry about that. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter and hopefully I can update soon (though from what I can tell, my schedule is going to be hectic for the next few months. :( Sorry for erratic posting in advance!)

-DustyFoxes-


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day dawned bright and clear, illuminating the green tennis courts. Soon they were filled with players, hitting the yellow balls across the court. Tezuka watched the practice, his face impassive as always. The Regulars were groggy and slacking off, most likely due to their late night out the night before. Tezuka assigned them 50 laps. Groaning about how evil he was, they took off.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the main building, a purple-blue haired girl and her tall silvery-blue haired companion made their way to the principal's office. People were pointing and staring. Niou Masaharu was quite infamous, even among Seigaku students. Who didn't hear of the Trickster and his player-like ways in middle school? His name had become even more well-known after he suddenly stopped messing around with girls in high school last year. They wondered what he was doing here, in a Seigaku uniform at that.

"This is so uncomfortable. Everyone's staring, puri." Niou said into Arisa's ear. She shivered at his hot breath ghosting over the shell of her ear.

"Go away Ru... I told you not to do that anymore. Anyway, if it bothers you so much, go back to Rikkai. It's your own fault for being so notorious anyway." she said grumpily. She was normally not herself until she got her 'morning dose of tennis'. Normal people needed coffee or sugar to wake them up, Arisa needed tennis. Niou swore she lived on tennis. However, today she had overslept and missed her morning practice. Niou had to deal with Grumpy Arisa the whole walk there, to his dismay.

"I'm just making conversation, piyo. Don't worry, once we're dome with the principal, we'll find a nice quiet spot and you can rally against a nice brick wall and become nice again." Niou said. She managed a small smile at that.

They managed to register quickly, but the principal insisted on showing them around the school. Niou had to thank him quickly, before Arisa said anything rude. She was getting impatient for her tennis, but she knew the principal was just being kind. So, she kept quiet and followed the boring tour, only lighting up when she saw the tennis facilities. However, they did not go down to the courts, much to Arisa's dismay.

Although the school wasn't as large as Rikkai, it was still rather large. However, there were only 2 indoor tennis courts and 4 outdoor ones as compared to the 4 indoor and 6 outdoor courts at Rikkai. There was also a lack of machinery to help the students practice. Arisa could tell that the school wasn't very wealthy.

Still, the compound was very large and Arisa was glad that her parents had specifically requested that Niou be in all the same classes as her, otherwise, it would be likely she'll end up getting lost a lot. For the first month anyway. Arisa's sense of direction wasn't too bad, but in a large place like this, it took her about a month to familiarize herself with the area.

Finally, the principal lead them to the classroom. Class 2-1. He told them that they were welcome to explore the grounds, so long as they were waiting for the teacher outside the classroom by 8.25. The moment the principal's back turned, Arisa grabbed Niou's hand and with a shout of "Tennis!" she dragged him down the stairs.

"Not so fast, piyoooo!" Niou screamed for his life as she rushed down the stairs 2 steps at a time.

* * *

The soft sound of a tennis ball being lightly rallied against the wall caught Tezuka's attention as he walked to the administrative building of the school. He had left practice in Oishi's capable hands as he remembered that he had to inform the coach about his decision to accept Arisa as the team's manager. He also wanted to ask permission to hold an intra-school ranking match as soon as possible. He had a feeling that Niou would make the cut as a regular and that would probably strengthen the team further.

He decided to make a quick detour to see who was playing. To his surprise, it was Arisa. She was showing off to Niou as she hit balls from behind her back, eyes closed. The ball varied its spin every shot, but somehow it always returned to her. She didn't even seem to notice she was putting all those crazy spins on the ball.

"Check this out Haru!" she cried while hitting the ball at the exact same moment she executed a backflip. She managed to hit the ball, but unfortunately, her backflip was a failure. She fell down, but as the grass was soft, she was uninjured. Tezuka smiled at the funny sight, but decided that he'd better go find the coach before it was too late. He'd have to keep an eye on her.

* * *

"Do what you like Tezuka. I trust you." the coach said. Tezuka nodded and left the room, sighing. He had forgotten that the "coach" was really more of a teacher-in-chrage character. He was Tezuka's Mathematics teacher, and while being a brilliant teacher, he really knew nothing about tennis at all. He relied on those few players who were good at tennis to run the club.

When Tezuka reached his classroom, Class 2-1, he was astonished to see a large crowd gathered there. He frowned and went to see what all the excitement was about. Niou and Arisa were standing in the middle of the crowd. Niou was smiling and flirting at a group of girls Tezuka recognized from his fan club. They were swooning and didn't even notice Tezuka. He felt it made a nice change. Arisa on the other hand, was just standing quietly slightly behind Niou. Tezuka noticed how one hand was gripped tightly onto Niou's jacket sleeve. Did she have to touch Niou at all times? Tezuka mentally rolled his eyes as he walked into his classroom.

"Did you see those legs? Damn, that girl is fine." a boy said to his friend as he walked into class. Tezuka felt slightly annoyed. He checked himself mentally. Why would he be feeling annoyed? He decided that it must have been because they were speaking of such menial things. He looked up as Fuji sat in his seat in front of Tezuka's. Fuji was smiling as always.

"Tezuka, Arisa-chan looks so cute in our school uniform. Don't you agree?" Fuji asked. He hadn't changed much since middle school, though he finally hit puberty, his voice had only gotten slightly deeper (and if the members of his fan club were to be believed, sexier). The only obvious difference was that he grew 15cm taller. He was now one of the taller members of the team. That and his newfound desire to work harder at tennis caused him to be uncontested in the school. Even Tezuka had a hard time against Fuji now, despite using his Teni Muho No Kiwami.

Tezuka just looked at his old friend and nodded. Truth be told, he thought Arisa looked adorable in their school uniform. The girl's uniform was a short pleated black skirt, either a short sleeved or long sleeved shirt, paired with a dark blue bow or tie. During colder days, the girls could either wear a dark grey sweater with the school logo embroidered on or the school's black blazer. They also added dark blue leggings to keep their legs warm. Today, being a warm summer day, Arisa wore a short-sleeved shirt, but unlike most of the girls in Seigaku who favoured bows, she wore a tie. It suited her somehow.

Tezuka looked at his own school uniform. The boy's had a choice of wearing the same style as in middle-school, or they could wear the school blazer with a dark blue tie instead. All the boys wore black slacks and white shirts though. Tezuka personally favoured the middle-school style. He was used to it and was comfortable wearing it, but now he wondered if he had made the right decision. Niou had managed to make the fan club that was supposed to be loyal to Tezuka fall for him in the blazer and tie. He wondered if Arisa liked the blazer better than the jacket.

Shaking his head at the crazy thoughts entering his head, Tezuka briefly wondered what was wrong with him. What did it matter anyway? He was glad his fans had stopped stalking him. They always bothered practice and it made him uncomfortable to see them cry after he rejected them. Besides, who cared which style Arisa preferred? It had nothing to do with tennis after all.

"Interesting thoughts Tezuka?" Fuji asked slyly. "What are you thinking of nya?" Eiji asked from beside Fuji. Without him noticing, the class had filled with the rest of the students. Tezuka just shook his head as the teacher walked into the classroom.

She was a very nice, soft-spoken teacher. Her name was Kora Miyoshi and she taught another class art. She managed to get the class to quieten.

"Okay class, we have two new students today. Please welcome them warmly." she announced. Niou and Arisa walked into the class.

"Niou-sama's going to be in our class? Lucky!" "Yes, the pretty girl is in our class!" "Oh my gosh, Niou-sama's looking at me, how do I look?" Whispers broke out immediately. Kora-sensei had to shush everyone again so that the new students could introduce themselves.

"Niou Masaharu. Pupina" Niou said, sounding bored. His slouch from middle school was just as pronounced as ever.

"My name is Yukimura Arisa. Please call me Arisa, Please take care of me!" She introduced herself, bowing politely. Tezuka thought she had pretty manners. The teacher decided to split them up as it would be easier for them to catch up that way. Inui, who was sitting next to Tezuka was asked to move behind Tezuka. Arisa was told to sit next to Tezuka and Niou was behind her. Of all the sophomore regulars, only Oishi wasn't in this class as he was in a special class for those preparing to enter medical school.

The moment Arisa sat down; she immediately turned to Niou and whispered something into his ear. He answered her softly as well. Tezuka couldn't hear a word of their conversation.

"Hi, I'm Arisa. Sorry for my rude behaviour yesterday, I apologize. Also, thank you for giving me the opportunity to join the team." She said sweetly.

"Ah." Tezuka replied. The girls on the other side of the aisle called Arisa and she turned to talk to them. Tezuka gave them a mental once over. Iida Rei was next to her. She liked Oishi and was a rather sweet girl. Oishi said her Valentine's were the nicest he had ever received, but he had to reject the gift as he didn't feel the same way. Next to her was her best friend, Isayana Rini. She was dating Eiji, but their relationship was rather weird. They rarely spoke in school though they did spend their lunch breaks together. She was the class representative on the student council. They would be good friends to Arisa.

Behind him, Niou was sleeping and Inui was collecting data. Tezuka sighed and stared out the window at the tennis courts. Today was going to be a long day.

* * *

**_AN:_**Yay! Another update. Ugh, I need to study instead of writing fanfics, but I was sick today.. Bleh.. Anyway, I don't know if anyone's still reading this as it seems (to me) to be getting more and more insane each update. Proof that my brain is slowly degenerating. Well, anyway, Arisa and Niou are finally in Seigaku! Excited? I know I am. Anyway, reviews are like chocolate, they make me happy and more ready to update, so they're awesome. :)

On a side note, there are certain things about Arisa that have been relayed wrongly by Inui to the team in the previous chapter. As his data was based on rumours, there are discrepancies. But these will only be revealed much later in the story as the Regulars get to know her better. Just to clear that up.

Anyway, things will slowly be revealed. I'm thinking that there'll be quite a bit of randomness like there's no plot, but there is one! I think... But my brain keeps interrupting with various ideas and I get sidetracked. Hopefully all will be revealed soon! Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Arisa supposed classes went well; she didn't really have anything to compare it too. Back in Rikkai, she was normally off in her own little tennis dreamland during classes. Luckily she could study by herself; otherwise she would've definitely fallen behind in classes. But today had been different. She was quite pleased with the development, even if it meant paying attention in class. Iida Rei and Isayana Rini were extremely nice girls. She knew that they would get on well, so long as they didn't become too nosy.

Iida Rei was extremely short. People often thought she was an elementary school student the way she looked. Her lively and outgoing personality was well-liked though. She was a member of the school band and played the violin. She was good at Science and talented at baking. Her cheerfulness managed to drag Arisa out of her initial shyness and they had a strong rapport almost immediately, calling each other by their given names. She contrasted Arisa's feminine and sweet looks with her bright aqua hair and vivid green eyes. She wasn't good at sports, so she was rather plump.

Isayana Rini on the other hand, was probably the reason Rei could draw people out of their shell. She was as delicate as Rei was loud. She was in the ballet club and thus, was extremely graceful. Her slender frame was quite tall, about 165 cm, making her the tallest of the trio. She was gorgeous and many guys claimed to be in love with her. She had long coal black hair and eyes like mercury. Her skin was also very fair, and had a pink tinge to it that made it look perfect. With her shy and gentle personality, it was amazing to find out she was dating the hyperactive Eiji. However, the two were very close, and Eiji always stuck up for her. He was just a little over-protective though.

Though Arisa adored her two new friends, she was slightly disappointed to find out that neither of them played tennis. Despite their differences, the three of them got along magnificently. She felt glad that she had friends to talk to in class though. Niou always slept in classes and Tezuka was always so serious, so she had thought that she would be very bored in classes. But with Rei, Rini and Eiji around, it was impossible. Even Fuji, who normally spent his time staring out the windows during classes, joined in their conversations occasionally.

Soon, classes were over and she woke Niou up with a kick to his shin. He howled in pain and was pulled down to the tennis courts. Niou supposed that he should have been used to it by now.

Niou and Arisa had been best friends since she was two. He had moved in next door to the house and one day, when he was lounging in his backyard, he had been hit by a tennis ball. An apology and a trick for revenge later, the two were inseparable. As such, Niou knew how Arisa would suddenly become hyper. You just had to say 'tennis'.

* * *

Tezuka walked down to the courts with Oishi, both already planning the next intra-school ranking tournament. When he arrived in the clubroom, he found Arisa and Niou waiting for him, still in their school uniforms. He sighed and ordered them to change.

He moved to go to the locker room himself, only to find a slim but calloused hand stopping him. "Erm... I don't know where the girl locker rooms are." Arisa said shyly. Tezuka blinked. He had forgotten that the girls' locker rooms were on the other side of the school.

"Aa... Just use the captain's room for now." he said. She nodded and slipped into the captain's room. Tezuka and Niou made their way to the locker rooms.

As Tezuka changed, he pondered what to do. The layout of the clubroom was relatively simple. When a person entered, they would find themselves in the meeting room, a large room with comfy chairs. The door to the right led to the captain's room, where the captain and vice-captain kept their paperwork and discussed club activities. To the left were the locker rooms and the showers. He frowned as he realized there was no easy way out of this. The girls' locker rooms would simply be too far.

"At Rikkai, she used the captain's room as a changing room and locker. As for her shower, she would wait till all the boys were done before showering. Buchou and fukubuchou or I would stand guard for her." Niou said, seeing Tezuka's frown. He stretched his arms. Tezuka sighed internally; there was no way out, was there. He asked Niou and Niou agreed to help "stand guard" over her shower with Tezuka.

When the two left the locker rooms, she was already waiting. She was wearing a dark blue tennis skirt with a white tank top. Her long hair was a mess. Tezuka guessed she was trying to braid it. Without a word, Niou went over and began braiding it for her. Based on the interaction, Tezuka guessed that he always helped her.

"What are your capabilities that make you suitable to be our manager?" Tezuka asked. He had to know these things after all. She paused and thought for a moment.

"I know many training techniques from all over the world. And I can also identify problems with form or technique easily. I can also make training menus to suit each player the best and I can coach." she said. Niou poked her neck.

"Ouch! I'm just about to tell him that!" she scolded him. "Also, I know things. Like based on the sound it makes, I can tell if a ball is in or out and what's wrong with that person's form and things. I can't explain it unless there's an example. I can't teach this technique though. But it helps me to identify the problems of the player." she said.

Tezuka just nodded, expecting to find out more about it later. "And Niou, what talents do you bring to the team?" he asked, curious to see how Niou had progressed since middle school

"Puri~ Illusion. And I'm good at singles and doubles." He answered.

"Haru can play with almost any partner. He can read habits and movements very quickly and change his play style to suit his partner. His strongest strength is his Illusion, but he has also worked very hard and achieved Muga No Kyochi, which helps him with his Illusion. He also plans 10 steps ahead, giving him a great advantage." Arisa said.

Tezuka widened his eyes just a fraction. Niou would be a formidable addition to the team indeed. They might even be able to strengthen their doubles team, finally. He stood up.

"Let's go. And you can show me your... thing" he said. He had no idea how to refer to Arisa's ability. "Just call it hearing. It's easier that way." she said smiling as they followed him out.

When they arrived at the courts, Tezuka had everyone line up. Goda was openly glaring at Niou, but Niou didn't seem to notice. Everyone else just looked at them curiously. Tezuka quickly introduced them as the new manager and a new member. While Tezuka wanted Niou as a regular, he'd have to prove himself in the ranking tournaments first. Once that was done, Tezuka began assigning work.

"Freshmen, pick up balls. Sophomores, practice serves at Court D. Juniors, practice matches at Court C. Seniors, practice matches at Court B. Regulars, 100 laps then practice accuracy at Court A." He ordered. Everyone quickly rushed to do his bidding.

Tezuka motioned for Niou to join the sophomores practice. Then, he turned to Arisa. "So this hearing thing?"

"Hmm... It'll be easiest if we watch a match." she said walking to the courts to find a promising match.

* * *

Arisa chose a match between the two strongest seniors. If they hadn't declined, these two would've made it as Regulars this year. They were much better than Godo, and even better than Momoshiro or Kaidoh. But they declined due to studies.

"This looks promising" Arisa said. Tezuka wondered how she knew. They were only warming up after smiled at him eerily as they began the match.

"The serve will be 2mm out, aimed at right corner." She said as the thwack sound of the racket hitting the ball was heard. "Fault!" The referee called a second later. How had she done that? It had been too soon to see it.

"In, 3cm. Left corner." She said. Her prediction had been right again. "Return left corner, 10 cm from baseline. 12 cm right corner baseline. Lob, 2 cm from baseline. Topspin, right corner, unable to return." She was spot on each time. Tezuka wasn't sure of the exact measurements, but it seemed accurate.

"Data tennis?" he asked his companion. "No, I can hear the ball and predict it's movements from that. I can't explain it." She answered.

"My comments on their form. The server has too much of a twist when he served, the control is lowered. During returns, he should bend his knees more to move faster and add power. The other player needs to plant his feet more during returns or his returns will have no strength. Good control though, both of them. Oh he's going to win the point!" She cried. Tezuka blinked. She hadn't even been looking at the match, staring at her fingernails instead, but she was right. She was freaky.

"How did you do that?" Tezuka asked. It was one thing to predict the movement of the ball when you could see it, but another to be speaking and not looking. She shrugged. "I don't know. I just do. It's not something that can be taught or trained specifically. I've always just known these things. Like by hearing, I can tell where the ball is going to land, the form of the player, the speed of the ball, and things like that. I knew he would win the point because the other player was at the net after a volley and wouldn't be fast enough to return the lob. It was also too high for a smash." She said simply.

Tezuka blinked. "And you can fix their form?" "Yeap, like Gen-kun had a problem with his ankle when he serves. He twisted it too much, weakening his ankle and losing power. I made him practice serves for a week and got him to wear ankle weights. Now he doesn't have the problem at all." She said.

"I can come up with many ways to help the players, but if they don't listen, even I cannot do anything to help them. They'll need to be willing themselves." She added smiling at Tezuka.

"Is it true that you've beaten every single Regular on the Rikkai team in straight sets?"Tezuka found himself asking. He had heard this rumour from Fuji earlier this morning and was curious to know if it was true.

"Nope, I've beaten most of them, but it wasn't easy, and I haven't beaten my brother in straight sets yet. Most of the time, my brother, Gen-kun and Renji-kun can get four or five sets from me. Sometimes if I've played too much and I'm tired, they can win. But that's normally after I've been tired out. Renji-kun hasn't won in straight sets yet though, and Gen-kun only once." She said, a bit of a smirk making its way onto her face.

"Yukimura?" Tezuka asked. "6 times out of 36 since last year." She said. "When we were young I beat him a lot more, but he's really improved. That and I didn't play tennis seriously for 3 years at that time. So he could beat me in straight sets..." She added. Now it was obvious she was smirking.

"The first guy who served is going to win this match 6-4." She said as Tezuka digested that information. "Did you use Saiki Kenpatsu no Kiwami?" he asked. She looked at him. "No, I can't use any of those fancy aura things." She said. "I just know. He's the better player and is at the top of his form today. But the other player is strong enough to challenge him at least." She explained.

They watched the match in silence until "6-4". She had been right. Tezuka smiled a small smile. Their new manager was fearsome indeed.

_**AN:**_Is anyone still reading this? Lol, yesterday, I wanted to post, it being a week since I first posted, but I couldn't make it in time. Anyway, this is a really long chapter, the longest so far, and I quite like it... But I'm starting to wonder if Arisa is too good to be true... Comments?

Anyway, I'm planning on making them play Truth or Dare eventually, though not for a good few more chapters, and I was wondering if there are any questions you guys want the Regulars to answer or Dares for them? Any suggestions will be very much appreciated for that time.

Well, that's all for now... :) Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Arisa noticed the slight curve of Tezuka's lips. She smiled to herself. He was even more handsome when he smiled. She wanted to see the adorable smile more often, but this guy seemed to have the facial muscles of a rock. She turned to see the two players shake hands as the match had finished. She sighed and stretched herself.

"Shall we go to see the Regulars now?" Tezuka asked her. She smiled and nodded her consent. As they walked over to Court A, Tezuka gave her a brief explanation of her duties as manager.

"Along with Inui, you'll train the Regulars. We shall mainly follow your training menus, Inui shall, of course, advise. When the Regulars have tournaments, it will be your duty to help Oishi and I to decide the line-up and you must also make sure the Regulars arrive on time. When you're not coaching the Regulars, you shall help coach the others. Can you do that?" Tezuka asked. She hummed and nodded.

"Just a question, since you're on the Regulars too, so you'll be following my training?" Arisa asked. She could've sworn she saw his eyebrows twitch, but it was gone in a second. Tezuka nodded and looked away. They had arrived at Court A.

"Okay guys, stop!" Arisa suddenly said, her normally soft and sweet voice becoming more confident and challenging. She had the tone of voice that silently challenged someone to disobey, but they would suffer dire consequences if they tried. All the Regulars froze, even Tezuka. He had not been expecting that.

"Oh yeah, Buchou, I start today right?" Arisa said, in an almost cocky tone. Tezuka nodded, astonished at the sudden change in personality. He supposed it was because she was used to being a manager, so she felt less shy. However, it seemed like she was as bipolar as his old teammate Kawamura Takashi, who gained confidence when he held a racket. Taka was now studying to become a sushi chef, so he had stopped playing tennis.

"Line up according to tennis ability. The strongest to my right then down." She said, interrupting Tezuka's reminiscing. Tezuka immediately stood furthest right. Fuji stood to his left, smiling. The rest of them… were arguing over who was the next strongest. All of them were fighting besides Oishi. Oishi was trying to stop the fight.

Arisa sighed as she took in the scene before her. Tezuka was standing like a boulder, expressionless. Next to him was a smiling Fuji. Next to both of them however, was a cloud of dust with a frantic Oishi running around it.

"Stop!" Arisa shouted. Everyone froze for the second time that day. Godo had Inui in a headlock and Eiji was trying to strangle Godo with his feet. Momo and Kaidoh were frozen in the middle of a fist fight. Arisa rubbed her temples and sighed.

"Just… line up. Any way will do." She was getting a headache from all of this shouting and fighting. She missed the military-like practices of Rikkai. The other Regulars all lined up obediently next to Fuji.

"Since I need to determine your strengths and weaknesses, let's play some matches, shall we?" Arisa suggested, smiling. "Who wants to go first?"

Momo and Kaidoh's hands shot up and they began glaring at each other again. Eiji had also raised his hand and was now jumping up and down like a little kid, saying "Me! Me!"

"Momo-kun, Kaidoh-kun, stop glaring at each other. Both of you are getting a time-out. Hand me your rackets and stand on either side of Tezuka-san. Now!" she ordered. With ill-grace, the duo complied with her wishes.

"Eiji, go warm up. You're up first." Arisa said.

"Who's my opponent nya?" he asked, looking hopefully at Oishi.

A scary smirk appeared on Arisa's face.

"Me"

* * *

"What?" Everyone shouted. Fuji's eyes shot open and even Tezuka was shocked.

"No offense or anything, but you're a girl. Girls are weaker than boys." Godo said insolently. She just gave another scary smirk.

"Then you shouldn't be afraid to play me after Eiji then." Her voice was sweet, but it had a sharp edge to it. Involuntarily, everyone took a step backwards. Eiji was literally shaking.

"It's the easiest was for me to figure out your weaknesses." She said by way of explanation as she began her warm ups. Eiji stood staring for a while before coming to his senses and beginning his own warm up.

"Let's play." She said after they finished warming up. She allowed Eiji the first serve. He decided to go easy on her, seeing as she was a girl. He had forgotten what Inui had said about her tennis history.

_She began playing tennis at six months old. Joined and won first tournament at age 6. She played in the under 16 males' category…She also constantly beats her brother and the other Rikkai players in straight sets, even when they are playing the best._

He served an easy serve that was still quite fast.

"Too slow!" she said, returning the ball easily. It was a return ace. The onlookers couldn't even see the ball. It was too fast.

"Problem number one: Never underestimate your opponents. Always be ready to counter, even if the shot seems un-returnable." Arisa said.

In the end, Arisa won the match, even though Eiji pulled out all the stops and played at his best. He only managed to get 2 points from her. It was clear that she dominated the game. Everyone watched in wide-eyed amazement. Inui kept talking about data and had filled over half a notebook and even Tezuka had a shocked expression on his face.

"Next!" Arisa called.

* * *

During the 2 and a half hours allocated club time, Arisa played all the Regulars besides Fuji and Tezuka. There hadn't been enough time. She won against all of them. Godo only got to touch the ball during his serve. She had won with straight aces. Momo and Kaidoh each managed to return a few balls and keep up a light rally, but neither of them got a point. Oishi scored a single point with his Moon Volley, but after that he failed to get another point. Inui did the best out of them all, going last allowed him to collect enough data to score 3 points. But none of them won a match from her.

After all the games, the entire club, with quite a number of people who weren't in the club had gathered around Court A. Niou walked up to her with a clean towel.

"Cheh, you weren't even playing seriously." He said, handing the towel to her. She took it and said "I didn't need to," like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A number of people fainted at that statement, including Momo and Kaidoh. She hadn't been playing seriously and she had slaughtered over half the Regulars? It beggared belief. To add insult to the injury, she wasn't even breathing heavily. This was a scary manager indeed.

"I want to play you." Fuji said suddenly, stepping forward. "I don't mind staying back if you don't," he added, opening his blue eyes. Many fan-girls screamed and squealed to see the resident genius' eyes.

"Wow, you've got beautiful eyes. So…sparkly." She said, going up close and staring into Fuji's eyes. He blinked then closed his eyes with a smile, uncomfortable with her close proximity.

"Can we play another match?" she asked Tezuka. He nodded, secretly eager to see the outcome of the math. Everyone promptly decided that home and school work could wait.

"Be careful, he's one of the best in Japan now. He beat Sanada-fukubuchou last year in Singles 3 remember?" Niou cautioned his friend.

"Guess I'll have to play seriously then." She said pulling off her wristband. As she dropped it to the ground, it made a loud thud and a small cloud of dust rose up. Niou nodded and left the court to wait outside with the others. Arisa continued to remove weights from her shoulders and legs.

"Just how heavy are those?" Momo wondered out loud.

"3 kg on each wrist, 2 kg on each shoulder and a total of 10 kg spread out on each leg." Niou said after a bit of consideration. Momo passed out again.

"Iie data" Inui said.

"He knows that was a joke right?" Niou said looking at the lifeless body. "Iie data!" Inui said again, writing furiously in his notebook.

* * *

**_AN:_**Next chapter: Fuji and Arisa's match. Also, the reason why she beat the other Regulars so easily is because of the shock factor. And she's technically a pro... But yea, they weren't expecting her to be so good. Just to clear that up. And when Niou said she wasn't playing seriously, that's him being tricky. Yea, I suck at jokes and pranks. Any ideas of what you want to see?

Also, if you haven't read the AN in the last chapter, please do. There's a chance for you to ask questions about any of the Regulars and Arisa so if you have any questions ask away! Erm... yea, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed this chapter?


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Both Fuji and Arisa played all out from the beginning, each of them showing perfect form and brilliant techniques. From the start, Fuji won a point by using his Disappearing Serve, but as the match progressed, it was clear that it would not work on Arisa. After two times, she managed to return the ball. She also managed to counter the 3 original Triple Counters.

Fuji was being pushed back as Arisa began to attack. Her style was to alternate strong and weak shots as well as to aim at different parts of the court so that Fuji would find it hard to return the ball and force him to run around the court. The onlookers were in awe. They had never seen such a match before. This would surely go down in Seigaku history as one of the finest matches of all time.

"Don't hold back on me!" Arisa shouted as she returned a ball and winning a point. Arisa was winning 5 games to three. Still, Fuji was currently the only Regular who won even a single match. As they changed courts, Fuji deliberated on his options. He decided that in order to win, he would have to use the move he had been saving for the Nationals this year or a match with Tezuka. He wondered if he should use it, or just lose. He finally decided that it would be worth it to break it out. After all, he had promised Tezuka that he would take tennis seriously from now on.

The crowd gasped as Fuji walked on the courts and began _glowing_. "Muga No Kyochi!" Oishi cried. Tezuka shook his head. "No. It's Hyaku Ren Jitoku No Kiwami." Oishi looked at him in shock. "But it's all over his body!" he cried. Tezuka just motioned for Oishi to watch.

The white-blue aura was moving to Fuji's right arm, concentrated on his wrist. His feet were also engulfed in the shimmering light. Tezuka's eyed widened. When did Fuji learn such a high level technique? And to have such control that he could maintain it in three places at once? Tezuka realised there was a lot about the genius that he didn't know.

"Bring it on Shiny!" Arisa said serving a sharp serve

From that point on, Fuji made a comeback, winning the match which had been pushed to a tie-break. Both players were exhausted after the match though, collapsing on the ground and not moving for around 10 minutes.

As the observers went home, they were all discussing the match that had lasted for a few hours. Many enthusiastic gestures ended in almost fights, as many arms or hands hit other people. However, everyone was too excited by the match to argue for long. Even Momo and Kaidoh were too busy discussing the match to fight.

In the locker rooms, Arisa waited in the Captain's Room as the males showered and changed. She began writing her report for the day as well as beginning to plan out the training schedule. Tezuka found her bent over her book after he was done showering.

"You should rest after such a tiring day." He commented. She just looked up and smiled shyly. Gone was the confidence that exuded from her on the courts.

"I'm just trying not to fall asleep. Here, want to see my report?" Arisa asked, offering her turquoise notebook to Tezuka. He took it and opened it to the first page. Stuck on it was a picture of her, Niou, her brother and some girl Tezuka didn't know. They all looked quite young and all of them were obviously very close. They were all holding onto trophies and rackets. A fierce looking man was behind them, but his smile big softened his stern face.

Tezuka was just about to ask Arisa about the picture when he realised that he probably shouldn't intrude into her private life. So he flipped to the last page that was written in quickly. Her notes were detailed and well-thought out, but her handwriting was terrible. Tezuka got quite a headache trying to decipher the messy words.

"Everyone else is done and most have left." Niou popped his head into the room, interrupting the comfortable silence the pair had been enjoying. Arisa nodded and got up to get her things. Tezuka also stood.

As she showered, Tezuka thought about the match he had just witnessed. Fuji had possibly surpassed him now. He had never seen Fuji use Muga No Kyochi before, and now he was suddenly using Hyaku Ren Jitoku No Kiwami. Fuji was definitely more serious in tennis since his defeat to Tezuka at the U-17 camp.

"That was a good match, wasn't it Niou? I think Fuji might beat my brother now, not just Gen-kun. It was so cool wasn't it?" Arisa said as she slipped out the locker room, dressed in a casual outfit of dark jeans and a pink t-shirt.

"It was cool to see you play seriously for once. You're normally not this serious, not even against your brother. You actually didn't laugh once during the entire match, nor did you get hyper." Niou commented as he took her bag from her.

"Fuji… He's more challenging, like there's something so unpredictable about him. That's what makes him different from the others. He keeps evolving while he plays. Didn't you notice? His shots got sharper and smoother." Arisa said thoughtfully.

"Maybe it's because you've played your brother and me too many times." Niou said.

"Maybe it's that. Anyway, I don't think I'll be able to walk tomorrow. I hurt everywhere. This is the first time I've played a proper match in a while." Arisa pouted at Niou. He sighed and bent down in front of her, offering his back.

"If you wanted me to carry you home, you could've just said so." He said teasingly. She blushed and shook her head. "You're carrying all my things already. I can walk…" Arisa protested.

"I'll be waiting outside. Please hurry, I need to lock up." Tezuka suddenly announced, interrupting the playful banter. With a quick bow and goodbye, he left the room. He had been so still and quiet that they didn't even notice him.

"Did you realise he was still here?" Arisa asked Niou. He shook his head and they headed home after apologizing to Tezuka for making him wait. It hadn't been very nice of them to make him wait, but Tezuka claimed that it was fine.

_**AN:**_Hey there, sorry that this is kinda short and stupid, I needed to break somewhere and the match sounded better in my head... Hope you all are enjoying this fic... Review? ^^


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The next morning, Arisa and Fuji both sat out morning practice as neither of them were able to move without feeling their muscles protest. Niou had actually had to carry Arisa to school! Luckily he was strong enough to do so. The Regulars now respected and were in awe of the slim girl. When she said run, everyone ran, even Godo who normally tried to get out of it. Due to her inability to play tennis before school that morning, she was extremely grumpy.

In class, Rei and Rini both kept their voices down around her as she was in a black mood. Still, it was rather peaceful as even the hyperactive Eiji was quiet. Many teachers found the silence a welcome change. However, Arisa nearly got into trouble during Biology class. Gensai-sensei, the Biology teacher, asked Arisa to write her answers on the blackboard. Due to the fact Arisa still had trouble walking (it was first period), she had said "I can't", too embarrassed to admit that she couldn't walk. Of course, Gensai-sensai had misunderstood and thought she hadn't done her homework. Luckily, by intervention of the other Regulars and Niou, she had managed to avoid his wrath.

After school, Arisa and Fuji were both moving again, though they were still a bit stiff. As such, they joined in the afternoon practice. Arisa warmed up with the regulars and managed to become less grumpy, probably because she had managed to hit a few balls at Niou when they were setting up. Once everyone had warmed up, Tezuka ordered the normal members of the tennis club to play practice matches in their own years. Then, he stepped down to let Arisa take charge.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu, don't think that you'll get out of playing me just because you're supposed to be the best. I challenge you to play a match with me." Arisa said, pointing her racket at him. He blinked and nodded before going to get his racket. Oishi immediately began fretting. She wasn't ready, her body still hadn't recovered, she shouldn't strain her body, she could injure herself, Tezuka might strain his shoulder (though it had been fine for over a year), Tezuka might injure her… Arisa just told him to referee.

Before the match began, Arisa removed her weights, the dust cloud rising up again around her feet. The Regulars flinched when they realised that she could keep up with them in running with the weights on her body. She was definitely scary.

Before the match began, they both had a light rally to warm up even more. Then Arisa told the other Regulars to watch carefully for any mistakes, saying that the fastest way to learn was to constantly observe. Then they began to play.

Just as Tezuka began his serve, Niou walked over, with his racket swinging by his side. He was sweating lightly, but didn't seem too tired. "Go back to your practice, you idiotic prick!" Godo said angrily.

"I'm done already." Niou said nonchalantly, not even bothering to spare a glance at Godo. The Regulars looked over at the court Niou had been on to see five sophomores standing on the court with shocked expressions on their faces. They looked back at Niou who was focusing on the match before him, seemingly impervious to Godo's glare.

"How did you do that in 10 minutes?" Fuji asked. There had been two rather decent players in that group, who had managed to get a few games from Godo, Momo, Kaidoh and Oishi during the last ranking tournaments. They didn't play the other Regulars though, being in different blocks. Niou just shrugged.

Fuji decided to go investigate. He walked to the other court quickly and began asking around. Eventually, he found out that Niou had beaten them all in straight aces and the ball had been too fast to even see. It seemed that the two reasonable players had succumbed to yips after seeing Niou slaughter the others. After all, he was basically an unknown entity in Seigaku for now.

Before Fuji left, he remembered one last thing. Niou was primarily a left-hander though he could play almost as well with his right during doubles when he "switched" with his partner Yagyuu. So Fuji asked them which hand he had used.

"His right?" the sophomores said, puzzled by Fuji's question. Fuji opened his cerulean eyes and looked over to Court A, focusing his gaze on a certain silver-haired boy.

Niou would be a strong addition to the team.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Court A, the match between Tezuka and Arisa was becoming fiercer as neither wanted to give in. They seemed to be evenly matched, much like Arisa and Fuji's match the day before. Arisa had sealed Tezuka's Zeroshinki Drop Shot by hitting such an extreme spin that the ball would bounce a little. Then, using a One-footed Split Step, she would reach the net, turn backwards and scoop the ball up, dropping it over the net.

Tezuka also succeeded in using Tezuka Zone to make Arisa run around, trying to return the balls. He noticed that she had a problem with deep shots to the corner so he took advantage of that. Arisa then sealed Tezuka Zone by hitting "sinkers" shots with no spin, like Itsuki from Rokkaku had sealed Fuji's Tsubame Gaeshi in middle school. Using that technique, Tezuka Phantom didn't work either.

By the time the other matches finished, the score was 3-2 in favour of Tezuka. Arisa had sealed Tezuka's special techniques, and Tezuka had managed to wear her out, taking advantage of her tired body. But still, neither was willing to give in. Sometimes, their rallies would get to such high speeds that only Eiji with his good motion vision would be able to see the ball.

Soon, Tezuka pulled out his ultimate technique, Teni Muho No Kiwami. Born from the joy of playing the game merely for the sake of enjoyment, Tezuka had only ever used it once. Out of all the members of the tennis club, only Fuji and Eiji had seen it before. They guessed that this meant Tezuka had finally found an opponent that he wouldn't mind losing to, as he was too caught up in the game. Everyone gasped as the startling light enveloped them.

Arisa wasn't going down without a fight though. As the match progressed, she showed more technique than they had ever seen before. Reminiscent of Shiraishi Kuranosuke's Bible Tennis, there were no unnecessary movements or effort. Still, she was being pushed back. It became clear that her wrist was weakening under Tezuka's powerful shots. Though she had beaten the powerhouse, Momo, Tezuka's shots had reached another level. If Ishida Gin had been there, he would've said each shot was as strong as his level 108 Hadoukyuu. It was amazing that Arisa could even return it. After all, she was a girl and no matter how strong she was, she was still weaker.

Eventually, the last shot landed. A Zeroshinki Drop Shot. She didn't even have the energy left to run to the net. As Oishi announced the final score, 6 games to four in favour of Tezuka, Arisa fainted.

Niou was first on the scene, rushing through the gate to reach her side. Most of the others were still in shock, barely registering the fact that she had fallen. After all, they had just witnessed a match that made Fuji and Arisa's match seem like child's play. To Tezuka, everything seemed like it was in slow motion.

Tezuka reached out his hand, wanting to go and help her, but as his hand stretched out, his world turned black.

_**AN:**_Hey everyone! Thanks for follows, favourites and reviews this fic has received so far.. Wow! I can't believe that it's been two weeks since I posted the prologue. =) I'm so glad for everything... Anyway, I'm going to be away from home (and my laptop) for the weekend, I'll be coming back on Tuesday, so I won't be posting for quite a bit. Which is why I rushed to finish this chapter. Hope you enjoy it. I kinda suck at writing tennis games so I might just skip over them next time. Anyway, I look forward to the next time I can come online again.. Till then, keep giving _Forgiveness _much love and support!


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

When Tezuka came to, he was lying down in what seemed like the school's infirmary. The smell of antiseptic and medicine assaulted his sense of smell. Tezuka opened his eyes, but everything was blurry, apparently they had removed his glasses, whoever _they_ were. He heard some people talking near him, so he tried to get their attention, but his throat was too dry and he couldn't call out. So, he listened to their conversation.

"Why didn't you use_ it_? You could've won! And you wouldn't be this way now…" a worried male voice that seemed somewhat familiar said somewhere to the right of his head said.

"I told you before; I'm never using _that_ again, not after what happened to you." A female voice said. Was that Arisa? She sounded rather angry.

"It was only once, an accident. You controlled it fine for years!" the male protested.

"Niou! It was once, but it still nearly killed you! I don't want any more blood on my hands, not after… not after…" There was the sound of sobbing. So the male was Niou. But what were they talking about?

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up. You know it wasn't your fault right? Don't cry anymore. It's just seeing you fall, my heart nearly stopped. I don't want to lose you Ari. Don't forget, I too, know firsthand how tennis can prove brutal. But, no one blames you, for any of it." Niou said. The sobs became muffled. Tezuka supposed he hugged her.

"It was my fault, all of it. I can't face it… How can you even look at me, after what I did? How can you comfort me?" Arisa said.

"You know how I feel about you. And you know that no one, not even Seiichi blames you for what happened. As for my injuries, I forgave you long ago. You should forgive yourself too. Just remember that I'm here for you, and I love you." Niou said.

"I know, I know, but I can't. Not here, not yet…" Arisa was still sobbing.

"It's ok. I will always be here. Until the day I know you can smile without me, I'll be here for you." Niou said. "Now let's go wash your face and go home."

The door opened and closed on the infirmary, leaving behind a still Tezuka, lying on the bed, wondering what he had just heard.

* * *

Soon, Tezuka had recovered enough strength to get up and leave the infirmary. He kept thinking over the conversation he had heard earlier. What had they been talking about? It seemed like Niou was asking about a special technique of Arisa's, one she had sealed after she nearly _killed_ Niou, but Tezuka couldn't think of any tennis moves that could possibly harm another player to that extent. Even Kirihara Akaya in Devil Mode couldn't kill a person; it couldn't even fatally injure another player. It might stop them from playing tennis ever again, but not _kill_…

"I love you." Tezuka also kept gravitating to those words Niou had said. He didn't really know why. There was the more pressing matter of Arisa's special techniques. It wasn't as if their personal lives had anything to do with Tezuka. No, he had to focus on the good of the team. He was sure that Arisa would be able to train them well. She certainly displayed a remarkable self-confidence when ordering the Regulars around before. As such, his duty as a captain would be to ensure his team's success, not whether Niou loved Arisa or not. However, no matter how he tried to focus on tennis, those 3 words kept floating around in his head.

"Tezuka!" His train of thought was interrupted by Oishi who was running up to him with the usual worried expression. No wonder Eiji often teased him that his face would get frozen like that. Well, then Eiji would normally suffer laps as a consequence of saying Tezuka's face had frozen, but that was neither here nor there.

"Are you alright? Any dizziness? How many fingers am I holding up?" Oishi asked. Tezuka answered all the questions in his usual monotone. Oishi would make a fine doctor indeed.

"You worried us nya!" Eiji exclaimed pouting at his captain.

"We just went to get your things before going to the infirmary to check on you. Wasn't Niou and Arisa there?" Fuji asked, holding up Tezuka's bags.

"No." Tezuka said. He took his bags, thanked them for their concern then left for home, without noticing the concerned look his friends gave him.

* * *

Once he reached home, he had come to a decision. He remembered something now. He used to be a pretty big fan of Arisa when she was still a rising star, before her disappearance. He was sure that he still had the magazines he collected during that period somewhere in his house. He felt certain that he would be able to find a clue or two in one of them.

He decided to do his homework first as he was a responsible student. Also, based on Inui and Fuji and their tendency to "investigate" things, he guessed it would take a long time. He remembered a few occasions Fuji had borrowed his homework before class as he didn't do it himself. Tezuka wasn't sure about Inui, but he figured Inui was used to doing his homework while "investigating".

Once he was done with his chores and homework, he set about looking for the old magazines. He eventually found them in the back of a store cupboard along with his first racket and old tennis equipment. He smiled fondly at the memories as he lifted the largish box and went back to his room.

He flipped through the magazines, remembering the excitement he had felt when he bought each copy. Though he was never one to show his feelings, he did feel them. He remembered the joy of rushing his parents to the magazine store and the feeling of each crisp page as he soaked in the tennis information.

As he found the magazines that featured Arisa, he remembered his childhood dream was to play against her and win. He smiled a rare smile as he realised that he had achieved it after all these years.

Eventually he found a profile of her just before she stopped competing. It detailed her special moves and her past successes. He looked at the magazine again. Opposite the article was his favourite poster of Arisa. She was wearing a pure white tennis dress that made her look fresh and sweet, as well as a pair of midnight blue angel wings on her back. She was holding her signature aquamarine racket in her hands and was leaning her head gently against the frame. As per habit, he smoothed out the page and stared at the photo. He had been enthralled by the beauty of the young girl, or perhaps just in awe of her tennis. It was too long ago for him to remember exactly.

He turned to re-read the article on the other page.

"The World's Best Wild Card Yukimura Arisa has just won yet another French Open and she's only 10. This special edition includes all the information on this young star as well as an exclusive interview. Let's hope we see more of this rising star soon!

Name: Yukimura Arisa

Birthday: December 4th

Height and weight: 128cm/30kg

Nicknames: World's Best Wild Card; Angel of Death; Ari

Hobbies: Tennis, swimming, reading and cosplaying

Blood type: O

Favourite food and drink: chocolate and sunset (a mocktail made of grenadine, mango juice and soda)

Best friends: Yukimura Seiichi (her older brother and mixed doubles partner), Niou Masaharu (her neighbour), Vanessa "Hikari" Carlie (her doubles partner.)

Talents (besides tennis): She can cross her eyes and stick her tongue out at the same time. Also speaks Japanese, English and French.

Motto: Do your best and you can fly!

Special Techniques:

Dancing Blade: Shower of 100 swords (this technique makes it seem like there are 100 balls rushing to the opponent at high speed.)

Dancing Blade: 100 days of pain (This technique wears out the opponent quickly and leaves their muscles in pain for days.)

Dancing Blade: Prison of Self-despair (this makes the opponent feel like they're trapped and causes them to "self-destruct".)

Dancing Blade: Drop of Satan (This is the newly confirmed name of the technique that won her the last Grand Slam title. It involved making the opponent "drop". Not much is known other than the opponent cannot continue after she uses this technique in conjunction with her other techniques.)

Plans for the future: To keep playing tennis, no matter what."

Then it was continued with an interview about her win and her friends. Tezuka didn't read that. He thought over the information he had read the rest of the night, speaking less than usual (if that was even possible). He kept wondering what really had stopped her from competing. The official reason was that she had to study, but she was exceedingly smart, and she had an excellent education by private tutors. Besides, she had played professional tennis for 5 years and had yet to lose a match despite playing against opponents much older and stronger than her. Surely that would be incentive for her parents to let her continue? Something didn't add up there to Tezuka. He also thought about Niou's words in the infirmary earlier today. He felt like there was something more to it, perhaps leading to her early retirement.

Was it the fact she had somehow nearly killed her best friend that drove her to it? But which of her techniques could possibly do that? Tezuka felt unsure. The "self-destruct" move seemed like it was similar to Yukimura Seiichi's Yips tennis. The first two also seemed relatively harmless, unless the speed ball hit a guy on the head and the court happened to be rocky, but that was unlikely. Was it the last one?

Finally, what was her relationship with Niou? Did he know the real reasons behind her mask? Why were the three words he had said to her affecting Tezuka so much? Surely...Tezuka didn't _like _like Arisa. He felt sure that there was some reason behind it, even though he wasn't too sure what that reason was. But it wasn't that he liked Arisa, despite keeping pictures and articles of her. Guiltily, Tezuka remembered the clipping he had kept from earlier that year, before she had come to school. He had removed it that evening, but it sat in his desk drawer now, mocking him. Still, he convinced himself that it was because she was good at tennis, and he had wanted to research on other teams. There was the more pressing matter of her retirement and tennis techniques.

With questions (and statements of denial) swirling around in his mind, he fell asleep, dreaming of flying tennis balls with black wings that said "I love you" to white tennis outfits.

_**AN:**_I'm back! Yay! Haha... hope you enjoyed this chapter... a long (by my standard.) chapter since I've been gone for quite a while... This is one of the pivotal moments in the story.. But the story won't be revealed just yet... The last paragraph actually happened to me when I was planning out this chapter, which was weird. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favourities. :)


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Tezuka woke up with a lot of unanswered questions in his mind. He wondered what he should do about all this, but decided that his best option would be to let it be and find out when she was ready to tell him. He was the kind of guy who respected privacy after all. So he decided to let her have her secrets.

As for his feelings towards her… That was a whole different ball game. As he had no knowledge of romantic relationships besides what Eiji and Momo said to their friends in the changing rooms, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Did he even have any feelings like that towards the girl? He wasn't sure, but he told himself that it was just interest in the former tennis player, not a crush or anything like that. As such, he decided to just be friends with her. He also decided, since he was going to be friends with her, he should make an effort to become her friend.

* * *

Such things, apparently, are easier said than done. As Tezuka's friends were basically just the tennis Regulars and a few other tennis players, he wasn't sure what made them friends. He remembered that it had been Fuji and Oishi who had been the ones to start the friendship, the others had followed them. He hadn't really done anything. But Arisa was different. She was shy and quiet when she was off the courts, except when she talked to Niou. So Tezuka would have to be the one to start the friendship. He sighed as he realised that his mother and Fuji were right. He _was_ socially awkward.

When Tezuka reached school, he had come to a conclusion. He would see how her friends treated her and he would follow suit. Surely that was a foolproof plan? If Tezuka was one to do such a thing, he would have patted himself on the back.

Though Tezuka had entered Seigaku's gates in a good mood as he had solved his problems (or so he thought), his mood quickly took a turn for the worse. First of all, a girl a year older than him confessed to him (which wasn't too bad as he was used to such things) and tried to kiss him after he rejected her politely (which was the bad part).Then the janitor accidentally spilled dirty water on the floor causing Tezuka to fall down and turn his white shirt grey with green spots (the janitor had been cleaning a spilled chemistry experiment, though where it came from was as good as anybody's guess). Then when he entered his class after getting a spare shirt from the nurse, he had sat down in his chair to find Niou had placed a whoopee cushion on it (an oldie but a goodie, Niou said). This was not Tezuka's day.

As the day progressed, he found it even harder to try and talk to Arisa. Every time he tried to talk to her, her "best friends" Iida Rei and Isayana Rini interrupted. Otherwise Fuji or Eiji would be talking to her. Sometimes, it was because Niou was awake and talking to her. Once or twice, even Oishi or Inui interrupted. Today really wasn't turning out the way Tezuka had planned.

At lunch, Tezuka was just about to ask Arisa if she wanted to join the tennis Regulars for lunch. As friends, they always ate together (except Godo, who wasn't really a friend anyway). Tezuka felt it would be nice to do that and she might consider him a friend if he was the one who asked her. He really wasn't good at this "making new friends" thing.

Just as Tezuka mustered up the courage to ask her (he needed courage to face Fuji's knowing looks after, not to ask her), Rei asked her to join her and Rini outside for lunch. Fuji, possibly seeing Tezuka look a bit disgruntled, invited the Regulars along. While Tezuka was glad to be spending more time with Arisa (friends meant spending time together after all), he had wanted to be the one to ask her. After all, Rei was _already_ her friend.

Once they had gathered the Regulars (without poor Godo), Niou and Taka, the group headed out to the grounds to eat at one of the many tables scattered at strategic places around the school. They found a nice place under a sakura tree so it wouldn't be too hot. By some sort of clever manipulation on the part of Fuji, Tezuka ended up sitting with Arisa. Oishi was on his other side sitting with an equally red Rei. Fuji was sitting on Rei's other side next to Eiji and Rini. The rest were all around the table. Niou was on Arisa's other side. Tezuka sighed as he realised that having a genius on the team meant manipulation such as this.

"Next week will be the ranking matches. You know about them right?" Tezuka asked Arisa. She nodded.

"Yes, of course. Why? Do you need my help with anything?" Arisa asked, looking up from her lunch.

"No it's alright. Just to tell you that you won't have to go to the matches unless you want to. We won't be training." Tezuka said. She nodded and went back to her lunch as if there was no interruption. It seemed that she was extremely shy off the tennis courts, rarely saying anything. Tezuka sighed internally. He wondered how he would be able to make her his friend when he wasn't very talkative either.

* * *

The next few days passed and they all fell into a comfortable routine. Tezuka had finally relaxed about his plan to be "friends" with Arisa. This was after he finally managed to ask her to join them for lunch of course. When Tezuka set a goal, he had to achieve it. Luckily it had only been two days of strange behaviour. Oishi had been getting worried about his friend.

In the mornings, Tezuka would ask Arisa if she had completed her homework (the answer was always yes), then the two would listen as the others chatted. Classes passed in amiable silence, Arisa occasionally joining in the jokes and conversations of the others. Then at lunch, everyone would meet up under the sakura tree for lunch. After afternoon classes, the Regulars would train under Arisa and Inui. Then, while waiting for the others to finish showering (Tezuka always wondered why they took so long), Tezuka would read Arisa's notes on the day's practice and she would do her homework.

Arisa, while proving that she was a competent manager in that she understood tennis better than anyone else, was a slave driver. She would make them train harder than they ever had to before. And it wasn't even competition season yet! For example, she made every single Regular wear weights, no exceptions. In addition, the Regulars weren't allowed to take them off, even in their sleep. The only time they could relax was while they were showering. On top of that, their training menu was, as Inui put it, 308.36% harder than normal, even taking the extra training during competition season into consideration. As such, many of the members were rather afraid of becoming Regulars.

However, today, the routine would be disrupted for 3 days. The interschool ranking tournaments had begun! Arisa was sitting in class by herself that morning, the rest were down at the court and Rei and Rini hadn't arrived yet. She looked at the neat schedules Tezuka had passed to her. In Block A was Tezuka and Kaidoh. Block B had Fuji and Oishi. Block C had Inui and Eiji. Finally, Block D had Momo, Godo and Niou. Arisa suspected Tezuka had arranged it as such because Momo had beat Godo before. The captain's dislike of the lazy player was very well known after all. She wondered how that match would turn out. She had a feeling that there was more to Godo than most people thought. It was like he was always holding back.

Arisa wasn't interested in watching the morning matches though. The Regulars that were playing and Niou were just facing easy opponents. The rest were on duty as referees and other simple jobs like that. So Arisa was experiencing a rather different experience of being alone in the classroom. She felt a light shiver run down her spine and was just about to go to the courts to watch the matches when…

"Excuse me, Arisa-san"

Arisa looked up from the papers in her hand. One of her classmates, Mochizuki Mayuko was standing next to her desk with a menacing expression on her pretty face. She was considered one of the prettiest girls in Seigaku, with long black hair and big grey eyes. She always used pink lip gloss, sparkly green eyeliner and black mascara to enhance her already pretty features. Beside her was her friend Inaba Nene, who wasn't as pretty as she was, but still quite good-looking. She had short dark green hair and brown eyes. Her pointed chin gave her a rather sinister look, but maybe that was because she always had a rather unimpressed look on her face.

Arisa leaned back in her seat a little, to secretly see if any of her friends were around. Fuji had warned her about the two girls confronting her. They were the president and secretary of Tezuka's fanclub (the vice was in a different class, much to her chagrin). Arisa inwardly groaned when she realised that no one was around yet. She began to feel a bit nauseous when she recalled the last few times she had been alone…

_**AN:**_Dun dun duuunnn... what's going to happen next? I'm planning a flashback of sorts to show what Arisa meant by that last line in the next chapter... Not sure how long it'll take because for some reason I can't get the words to sound right... Please wait patiently for it! *bows*

On another note, writing Tezuka as socially awkward is so fun! I hope I'm depicting the characters properly... Anyway, BIG THANKS to those who reviewed and followed this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you in the next chapter!


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_Flashback_

_ Arisa was walking to class. It was her 2__nd__ week in Rikkai's high school division. She had hoped that by transferring here, she would be able to get into the same class as he brother or Niou or Sanada, but in this high school, they separated the boys' and the girls' classes. Something about rampant hormones and uncontrollable teenagers._

_ She walked into class and sat down. Since she started here last week, she had been the victim of hateful glares and spiteful sneers. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she didn't like it. As such, she rarely socialised with her classmates or anyone outside the Rikkai tennis club. She was always a little socially awkward anyway._

* * *

_ She began receiving hateful anonymous messages, warning her to stay away from the tennis team and resign from her post as manager. The messages insinuated that she had slept with all the Regulars and had forced her brother to give her the post despite not being any good at tennis. Arisa found that hurtful and absurd, but she tried to be nonchalant toward it. She told herself that the words couldn't hurt her._

_ Then the physical attacks began. Punches, pinches, kicks; all carefully aimed at the covered spots of her body, particularly her lower back and stomach. She was always cornered by at least 6 people, but normally it was more. 4 of them would hold her down, one would look out for teachers or tennis Regulars and the rest would start the abuse. Arisa had no chance to even defend herself. It wasn't just the girls who treated her like that, but one or two boys joined in._

_ "Why are you doing this to me?" Arisa had asked them._

_ They gave many reasons. Some said that she was too close to the tennis Regulars, some said it was her cold and stuck up attitude, others said that it was because she was the tennis manager when they had worked much harder than her to get that position, one or two said that it wasn't fair because she never paid attention in class and always scored well._

_ Still, despite all they said, Arisa didn't back down from her positions as manager or as top student in her class. She thought it would be stupid of her to purposely not do so well in exams as she studied extremely hard, sometimes not even sleeping just to master a concept. As for her position as manager, she knew that while others wanted it more, they weren't really suitable for the position. Most of them only knew the difference between an in ball or an out ball, and they only wanted the position because they wanted to attract the attention of the Regulars. The few who actually knew what they were doing weren't brave enough to stand up to the Regulars if they decided that they wanted to slack off. So Arisa felt that until they were capable, she wouldn't relinquish her role. However, she did try to be more sociable and pay more attention in class (though she found it hard to listen to teachers, being more used to following her own pace). Still, the damage was done, they didn't see her trying to change._

_ Arisa should've told someone about what was happening, her teachers, her parents or even her friends, but she was reluctant to. In her mind, this was like a tennis move she couldn't master or a physics concept that was too difficult for her to understand. She felt that she had to deal with this problem herself. She didn't want to drag people into her problems._

* * *

_ A few months later, around the middle of the school year, they brought a razor blade to school. 6 girls, all the strongest in the class suddenly pinned her to the table before class. Tayama Kunie, the leader of the group, lifted up the edge of her white shirt and sneered at her. Arisa had tried to avoid the blade, but the other girls had her overpowered. Tayama gently sliced her tennis tanned skin, each time asking Arisa if she was willing to back off the tennis team and resign as manager. Arisa refused each time; too obsessed with her duties and responsibilities as manager. She told herself that she could handle the pain._

_ Arisa had never felt anything as cold as that blade in her life, but she wasn't going to back down. Soon, her previously smooth skin was scarred with multiple cuts. Tayama cleaned and bandaged the wounds gently after she was done, seeming almost sorry for what she had done. Still, once she was done, she told Arisa that it was only because she didn't want the teachers to see any blood on her shirt._

* * *

_ Arisa had never thought that people would be so jealous of her that they would go as far as to threaten her with death, but she could handle that. However, when it was her brother who was involved, that was a whole different story._

_ One day nearing the end of the school year, a girl from Niou's fan club named Ando Saki came up to her after a particularly gruelling tennis practice. Arisa, who had basically just ordered the Regulars around, was waiting for her brother by the school gates instead of inside the club room, wanting to make full use of the good weather they had been having lately._

_ Ando suddenly spoke. "To teach you a lesson, we've put a toxin into your brother's water during the last few practices. It's virtually undetectable and the only symptom is that his immune system is lowered. You know how he's been getting sick a lot lately? Yea, that's your fault. Since you didn't listen to us and back off Niou-sama, this is what you deserve. Seeing your brother suffer and weaken." She said. She had been rather nasty when threatening Arisa, but she never seemed like the type to hurt others. Then again, neither did Tayama._

_ Arisa felt the blood drain out of her face as the words sunk in. Her brother's illnesses were her fault? She looked at Ando, not believing that someone with such an angelic face could do such a thing. It was true that Seiichi had been having a rather hard time lately, getting sick quite easily, but everyone thought that it was due to the stress of going to Nationals and everything. Now she was told that it was because of her? She had caused her brother and friends all this stress and worry?_

_ "You're lying. You can't… you can't have…" Arisa said, voice cracking. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. It was impossible!_

_ "Look, we didn't want to have to do this, we thought Tayama-san's warnings would've been enough. But you didn't listen, so we had to take drastic action." Shintaro Hajime, a guy who wanted her managerial position, said. A few others who had gathered from Niou, Marui, Jackal, Yagyuu and Kirihara's fan clubs nodded in agreement. There were about 10 of them in all._

_ "Tayama-san?" Arisa asked. Tayama Kunie, while being the leader of the Anti-Arisa movement, was a Seiichi fan. There was no way that she would have condoned this. As everyone knew, Tayama was desperately in love with Seiichi, one of the only few guys who wouldn't give her time of day._

_ "Tayama-san? That girl doesn't know about this. But then again, she doesn't really know anything. You think she's the leader? She's not, I am. I've been manipulating her this whole time. You know who was the one who came up with the idea of the hate mail, the razor, and the pranks? It sure wasn't that obsessed freak. It was me. And once you're gone, I can work on getting rid of her so that _I'll_ be Queen of this school." Ando said, flicking her dyed blonde hair over her shoulder._

_ "Fine, I'll do what you want, just don't do anything to my brother or the other Regulars again." Arisa said, about to cry. She was trying to appear strong in front of them, but this incident reminded her of what had happened 5 years ago…_

_ "Transfer out of here once the school year is done and also resign as manager immediately. Oh, and don't ever some back." Ando said._

_End flashback_

* * *

Yes, Arisa had terrible times when she had been alone, and now it was starting again it seemed.

"Can I help you?" Arisa asked Mochizuki politely.

**_AN:_** IMPORTANT! If you are getting bullied in school or anywhere else DO tell someone else. DO NOT try to deal with it by yourself because end up getting hurt. Bullying is NOT a joke so please take it seriously. If you are or know people getting bullied, make sure that you or they seek help. Bullying is BAD, not matter if it's mental or physical. Please raise awareness of bullying as a major problem. Most students do not know that some things, such as hateful comments can be considered bullying. So let's all work to stop bullying yea? Don't be like Arisa! She was pretty dumb about it and it got really far. Though hopefully no one will take it this far... So don't follow her example!


	13. Chapter 12

_**AN:**_Hey, I know normally I put these at the end of the chapter, but I recently got a review from a person named "Guest" who pointed out that my character was a Mary-Sue. I wasn't aware of this so I'm sorry if anyone finds her too perfect or annoying... I will try to make her more believable. Also, I have been asked about her beginning tennis at 6 months old. This is in fact a rumour. It'll be explained soon, so I hope that it'll be okay. To those who find the fact that she can beat the Nationally-ranked Seigaku team, well, she is a professional player, which I think makes sense for her to be better than them, so yea... But I am glad for the criticism and reviews I get. So please review and help me make this fic better and more interesting. :) Onto the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 12

"I'm not planning on becoming your enemy Arisa-san" Mochizuki said. "I'm just warning you that if you're planning on capturing Tezuka-sama's heart, I'll have something to say about it. It's mine, you understand. So just back off him okay."

Arisa was planning to just nod and agree as she didn't want any trouble, but a loud presence made itself known. Rei had arrived.

"Arisa can very well hang out with whoever she likes." Rei said. Arisa began to protest, but Rei cut her off. "If Tezuka likes her, that's because she's an awesome girl and that's that." Rei added. Mochizuki looked like she was about slap Rei when a pale hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed her hand.

"Mayuko! Don't do this! Threatening Arisa-chan isn't going to do anything! You know best that whoever Tezuka-san likes is his prerogative. His heart will decide, for him, no matter what Arisa-chan does." Rini's soft voice said. The arm moved out of Arisa's vision and she saw the pretty face of Isayana Rini.

"Ri-chan!" Mochizuki said in a shocked tone. Then, gathering her wits about her, she huffed and walked away with Inaba trailing after her obediently. Rei huffed angrily at the other girl and put her bags down. She seemed displeased.

"Sorry about Mayuko. She's not really a bad person; it's just that she really likes Tezuka a lot. Last year, she thought he liked her. He was coaching her in World History and they spent a lot of time together. He even invited her to go fishing with the Regulars. But when she confessed, he turned her down coldly. Apparently he only invited her so that I wouldn't be the only girl." Rini said.

"So you have history between you too?" Arisa asked the ballerina curiously.

"Yes. We were best friends, but also rivals. Mayuko used to dance ballet too. She was my partner in the early years, but when we moved onto solos, we became friendly rivals. But after Tezuka rejected her so coldly, she changed to try and get his attention. She stopped ballet and took up tennis, and began mountain climbing and fishing as well. It was all because of Tezuka. So we drifted apart. I think it was also partially because she was jealous that Eiji confessed to me around that time as well." Rini said.

She bent down as if to give Arisa a hug. "Don't worry about her; the fans in our school aren't violent. They're a bit mean, but not violent." She whispered into Arisa's ear. Arisa guessed that she must have heard about what had happened from Eiji. When Rini stood up, she gave Arisa a smile and said that she and Rei would be there for her as friends. Rei agreed in her usual exuberant way.

The trio began their normal morning chat, discussing the interschool ranking tournaments and guessing who was going to win. Arisa was rather distant though, she kept looking at Mochizuki and reminding herself that she wasn't the other person.

* * *

The next 3 days passed in a blur. Mochizuki and all the other fan girls (and even some fan boys) stayed away from them. Arisa suspected that Fuji had threatened them in his own creepy way. He was weird that way.

The results of the interschool ranking matches over the 3 days were almost as Arisa predicted, but one match threw everyone for a loop. Godo had beat Momo in a fierce battle, returning to the team as a Regular. No one had expected that. So Momo was off the Regulars, much to everyone's dismay. They didn't like Godo's laziness on courts and his sly nature off it. He was known for messing with the other freshmen's trainings by calling them names and beating them flat, crushing their spirit. The other Regulars felt that that was too mean of him, even though he was playing people the same age.

However, he had won his place fairly, so they could do nothing about it. It wasn't that he was a bad player; just they rather have Momo's friendly and helpful personality with them. With Godo, it was as if you couldn't trust him, and that was their main problem with him.

Arisa sighed as she realised that Momo would no longer be on the team to fight with Kaidoh. Despite only working with the team for slightly over a week, she found the dynamic between the two interesting and fun. She had been planning to put them in doubles… Now what was she going to do?

"Arisa-san, what shall we be doing today?" Inui asked her. They were discussing the training schedule before school when Arisa had spaced out.

"Ah, sorry, I was thinking, maybe today we can try doubles? I know that that's the main problem with the team. We also need to find out how Niou fits into the team." Arisa said, referring to her notes.

"Ah, that's a good idea, might I suggest that we use the Golden Pair as a standard?" Inui offered. Arisa shook her lingering thoughts out of her head and turned to the conversation at hand, arguing with the data man about the best way to test doubles pairings.

* * *

In the end, Inui relented to Arisa's ideas, guessing that she had more idea of what she was doing. After all, Rikkai's doubles pairs were significantly stronger than Seigaku's, with both of them being National level.

Arisa first had them do some basic trust exercises, such as falling backwards and such. After observing several epic falls from the team, she could've cried. They weren't very in tune with each other (with the exception of Oishi and Eiji of course). First off, Fuji had fallen with Tezuka behind him, but he fell before the captain was properly. While Tezuka had caught the genius, his lack of preparation had caused the two to fall backwards.

"What happened to "don't let your guard down" Tezuka?" Fuji asked; his creepy smile still on his face. Tezuka just kept his poker face. When Tezuka fell, Fuji had been distracted by Inui and Godo's practice and Tezuka had fallen on the ground.

Inui and Godo didn't trust each other at all, both falling on the ground each time they tried (Inui had been too busy collecting data to catch him and Godo was too lazy to bother catching his senpai). The Eiji-Oishi pair had been perfect of course.

Niou and Kaidoh were reasonably okay, catching each other, but as neither had a good rapport, they dropped each other immediately, so they both ended up on the ground anyway (Kaidoh had dropped Niou accidentally, Niou dropped Kaidoh in revenge).

Switching round partners produced much of the same results. However, the rest of the time, Tezuka had managed to catch all his partners properly, but that was only the result of being on his guard constantly.

Oishi had reliably caught all his partners too, being the steady guy he was. Eiji had managed to catch everyone, but Inui, who freaked him out too much for him to catch the larger male efficiently, and Godo, who fell when Eiji was showing off to Oishi. Fuji had decided that seeing the Regulars sprawled out on the ground was too much of a chance to pass up and he let all his partners drop, taking several pictures in the process. Inui didn't catch anyone besides Kaidoh who was the only person he could boss around. Inui didn't want to lose a valuable test subject…er, he meant friend. He also didn't let Fuji or Tezuka fall, knowing that they would enact some terrible revenge if he did. He had let the rest fall to gather data.

Godo had let everyone fall, not caring about their welfare at all. Kaidoh had managed to catch everyone, but he often let go too quickly, embarrassed at the close contact. Niou had caught everyone else once Arisa told him that she would tell Sanada to Tarundoru-slap him if he didn't do it properly. So he took the chance to stick "KICK ME" signs on all of them.

Arisa tugged at her purple hair. In the end, she decided that they all needed to have "team bonding" time. It was decided that the Seigaku Regulars would take the next week off and have make up classes once they came back.

* * *

_**AN:**_Hope you enjoyed! Reviews are much appreciated.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The day of the camp dawned a clear morning. The Regulars and Arisa were sitting in a bus on the way to a house Arisa suggested they hold the training at. Currently, on the bus, the teacher-in-charge was sleeping, Tezuka was reading a thick volume, Oishi and Eiji were chatting and sharing snacks, Fuji was smiling while looking out the window, Kaidoh and Godo were asleep, and Inui was collecting data. Arisa was sitting next to Tezuka and reading over his shoulder. She was bored.

"What are you reading?" she asked him suddenly. He jumped a little in shock then pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"A book on how mountains are formed." He answered her, not seeming ruffled at all.

"Why are you reading a book on mountains when we're going to the beach?" Arisa asked. The Regulars who were awake immediately began pressing her for more information. Though they had tried to find out more details about the elusive camp site, Arisa had previously refused to even tell them a single word.

Arisa was just about to tell them all to keep quiet when she saw a familiar gate. "We're here!" she told the excited Regulars.

They looked out the window to see a lovely mansion practically on the beach. It was made of stone with ivy growing all over it.

"Are we staying here Arisa-chan?" Oishi asked. She nodded.

"Well, we'll be staying in the outhouse at the back. It's closer to the tennis courts." She smiled at them. "Don't worry; the facilities are excellent there too."

"Sugeiiii! Is this your house Risa-chan?" Eiji asked excitedly. Yes, he called her Risa-chan, claiming that it was cuter as her friends names started with the letter "R" as well.

"Ah, no it isn't. It belongs to my old sponsor. He's letting me borrow it." She said to the group. They looked at her curiously. She very rarely spoke about her past, so this was a strange phenomenon.

"Let's go in shall we?" she led the way to the back of a mansion, where there was a moderately large-sized house next to 4 gorgeous tennis courts. There were 2 clay courts, 1 grass court and a hard court. There was also a lot of the latest tennis equipment.

"My sponsor's son plays tennis. He occasionally invites their team to come train here, so I thought it would be a good idea to train here. The rooms are divided up as follows. Tezuka-san and Godo-san, Inui-san and Kaidoh-kun, Oishi-san and Eiji, and finally, Fuji and Haru-kun. I'll be just down the hall from you guys." Arisa gave out the room assignments. Tezuka inwardly groaned. Why was he with Godo? Shouldn't Oishi, as his vice-captain, be rooming with him? Still, it would be a bad example to complain, so he would have to just grin and bear it.

"Hey everyone!" a cheerful voice greeted them. They all looked to the house to see Momo, Rei, Rini and Mashita Sui, a girl in the same class as Arisa and the others. She was the only girl in Inui's fan club, and Fuji suspected the data man liked her as well. She was fairly intelligent and extremely meticulous. She also had a talent for chemistry.

"They'll be helping us out for the next few days, so be nice, okay guys?" Arisa said. They all nodded dutifully and went to their respective rooms to relax and unpack.

* * *

About an hour later, they were called for lunch. It was burgers (Momo's idea) and salad (the girls insisted) and fries (Inui said they needed more carbs). They ate in contentment, enjoying the sea breeze that wafted in from the windows. It was a nice change from the atmosphere of the city. All the boys were excited to play tennis after lunch, but Arisa dragged them to the lounge instead.

"Since we're here for team bonding, let's have a sharing session." She said happily. "I read somewhere that some sports teams spend time just talking to improve team work, so let's do that! I mean, no offense, but you guys don't really talk much."

"What?" all the Regulars shouted, except Tezuka, he just twitched. Even Niou seemed shocked, so it seemed like she didn't suggest this at Rikkai or perhaps he just didn't expect it.

"Well, while you all have known each other for a long time, you don't seem to open up to each other, except Oishi and Eiji of course. I mean, do you guys talk to each other about anything besides homework and tennis? Communication is important in a doubles team! Which is why Oishi and Eiji have such good rapport when playing." she said by way of explanation.

The Regulars looked at each other warily. They imagined Tezuka or Inui sharing their innermost feelings and shuddered. They also regarded Fuji warily. It would be just like the genius to use such a time to gain blackmail material… This was definitely a bad idea.

"If you don't agree to this, I'll have to force you. Now, shall we do this the nice way or the nasty way?" Arisa asked, getting her "I'll-make-sure-you-get-no-sleep-and-make-you-run-laps-till-you-beg-me-to-amputate-your-legs" look on. The Regulars decided to do as she said. They were sure there would be some sort of evil revenge if they didn't.

"Alright, so how are we going to do this?" Godo asked, sounding very much like he would rather eat Fuji's wasabi sushi than be there at that moment.

"Hmm… Well, I suppose you all have some questions you'll like to ask each other, so we'll do that. You can ask me first, just so that we all get a little more comfortable with each other." Arisa said smiling. "Inui, notebook away." She added, seeing Inui get his notebook ready. He put it away sadly. They decided that each person would take turns asking questions to the questionee then the questionee would move to the next person in the group and so on.

"Erm… Is it true that you won 2 Grand slams?" Tezuka went first. He could think of nothing that wouldn't seem too strange. He did want to ask about her special techniques, but he decided to start with an easier question.

"Yes, but for some reason, even the magazines here kept getting it wrong. I participated in the female tournaments, not the males. Only my first competition was in the wrong category as I couldn't read well at the time and Niou tricked me." She said, glaring at said boy who ignored the glare.

Next up was Oishi. "Do you have any injuries that might act up again?" he asked, needing to know if there was anything he should watch out for if the need ever arose. He was always worried about the welfare of the team.

"Hmm… My wrist doesn't hold up too well under power players, but unless the match is drawn out, I can handle it. Also, I've been warned not to do too much heavy lifting as it's not good for my back." She said. Oishi told her to take care of her health and she agreed.

"Saa… My turn. Have you ever been kissed?" Fuji asked Arisa.

"Eto… What kind of question is that? Erm… No, I haven't." She answered him, blushing.

"Me! Me! Erm… what type of guy do you like?" Eiji asked, clearly following Fuji's lead.

"What kind of guy asks a girl that? Ari, don't answer! You're too young to be thinking of such things. Sei-buchou will kill me if you think about that!" Niou protested. Arisa just laughed.

"I like tennis playing guys." She told Eiji.

"Is it true that you've beaten the 3 Demons of Rikkai in straight sets? If so, how did you do it?" Inui asked, returning the talk to tennis.

"I've beaten Renji-kun and Gen-chan in straight sets, but that was a long time ago, like when they just started tennis. I've beaten my brother too, but not in straight sets. I did it by playing tennis? I don't really know what you mean by that, but I started playing tennis at like 2 and a half or 3 and I had lessons since I was 4. I think? So I had the advantage there" Arisa said over Eiji's protests that it wasn't fair Inui asked two questions and Inui's pained screams of wronged data...

"Erm… What special techniques do you have?" Kaidoh asked. Tezuka applauded his kouhai inside his mind.

Arisa's face darkened slightly and Niou quickly patted her shoulder warningly. She then smiled at Kaidoh. It seemed extremely fake. "None that I use now." She said tightly. Tezuka wondered what she was hiding.

"My question for you is, why are we playing this stupid game?" Godo said rudely.

"I told you, to gain trust among the team." Arisa said, seemingly unperturbed by his rudeness.

It was Niou's turn next, but he claimed that he already knew everything that could be asked in polite company about Arisa. She agreed that he did, so they let Tezuka ask another question before it was their turn to interrogate him.

"Who was your coach for tennis?" Tezuka asked. While he wanted to ask about her special techniques, he felt it wasn't time yet. He reminded himself of his resolve to let her come to him and not force her to tell him.

"Coach Nyuudou." She said. Immediately, Inui, Oishi and Kaidoh fell off their chairs. They remembered the crazy coach at the U-17 camp who lived on a mountain and drank like a fish. They also remembered his brutal training. While Niou had been there with them, he was not fazed by the news as he had known this beforehand. This also explained why he had been the first to know that the insane training was for good reason. Still, Tezuka, Eiji, Fuji and Godo didn't know about it, so the 3 who fell quickly told them about it.

"He's very nice. I don't know what you're talking about. Sure, his methods are a bit different, but they're really effective." Arisa protested, saddened by the other Regulars' strange opinion of her previous coach.

"You were his prodigy… He always treated you specially anyway… and your training wasn't as hard as he told you what was going on…" Niou said. Arisa shook her head, refusing to believe it.

"Anyway, that's why there are rumours about me joining the U-17 camp. Actually, I was just getting my training schedule from him. It's not my fault the camera footage accidentally got leaked to the press. No one listened when we tried damage control either. I've never even been inside the grounds, unlike you guys." Arisa added.

"Is that so…" Inui seemed greatly depressed by this development. After all, it meant that his most of his data had been wrong. Still, he cheered up when he realised he could now get the most accurate data on all the players. Everyone turned to ask the next person some questions. It was Tezuka.

* * *

_**AN:**_Sorry for the late update! I've been busy with exams and stuff so I can't update as quickly as normal, but I will try to update as much as possible. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review. There'll be more Q&A sessions, so if you have anything to ask about Arisa or any of the others, do let me know. :)


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"I'll ask first!" Arisa said happily to Tezuka. He twitched imperceptibly. Only Fuji, with his sharp eyesight caught it and smiled to himself (not like he's ever _not_ smiling). It seemed like Tezuka was less comfortable with this exercise than he seemed.

"Erm… Who would you want to try doubles with in this group?" Arisa asked. Tezuka just inclined his head in Fuji's direction.

"Saa… really? That's great. So my question is, have you ever been kissed or kissed a girl?" Fuji said. That sadist! Tezuka twitched again and shook his head. He really didn't talk much… And for some reason, no one noticed Oishi's turn got pushed back. Luckily he didn't mind.

"Does your arm still hurt?" Oishi asked, wondering if he'll get a truthful answer this time. Tezuka just grunted and shook his head in reply. Oishi really did put the team's health first.

"Would you date Risa-chan nyaa?" Eiji asked. Another twitch. Tezuka was starting to felt like he was having a spasm. He shrugged, but felt it necessary to clarify that he was not saying he would do it, unless the circumstances were right. Or something to that effect anyway. Luckily he could not read minds or he would've seen Inui and Fuji's plans to get them together or Niou's plans to murder him in his sleep (or prank call him. Niou wasn't quite certain).

"Is it true that you once confessed to a girl, but she rejected you?" Inui asked, clearly not knowing what to ask since he couldn't refer to his notebook. Tezuka, blushing lightly, nodded his head, keeping his face expressionless. Everyone's jaws dropped open.

"Buchou… tell us the story!" Kaidoh said. Since it was his turn to ask, Tezuka had no choice _but_ to tell the embarrassing story. He did try to get out of it, but everyone forced him to tell it.

"It was when I was 5. She was 16 and she bought me an ice-cream while I was lost at a park. She also helped me find my parents and I am very grateful to her." He said, cursing Inui for hearing that rumour. He suspected Inui had heard it while eavesdropping on his family.

After that, there were many more questions, but they avoided asking too many personal questions once Tezuka started giving laps. Fuji asked everyone if they had been kissed and of course Eiji had. Niou claimed to have kissed many girls, which wasn't unexpected, given his reputation. The surprising one was Oishi who had apparently kissed Rei by accident. She had been going to confess to Fuji when Oishi stopped her because Fuji was talking to Yuuta on his phone. He had grabbed her arm to pull her back, knowing that if she interrupted, Fuji would do something terrible. But he had used too much force and their lips met. Eiji said it was the most romantic thing he had ever heard. The rest of the Regulars had never been kissed (Eiji asked Fuji).

"Arisa-san, are we going to go round again?" Oishi asked the young girl once Niou had finished answering his questions. She shook her head after looking at her watch.

"That's enough for now. We'll continue after dinner. For now, let's go play some tennis!" Everyone agreed with that and ran to get their rackets. Except Inui, who rushed to his notebook and began writing like there was no tomorrow.

* * *

After dinner, Momo and the girls joined in the fun. They decided that instead of just asking questions, they would play truth or dare as it would be more fun and relaxing. Momo got an empty bottle from the kitchen and the game started.

First up was Fuji. He spun the bottle and it landed on Inui who chose Truth. "What was your most embarrassing moment?" the genius asked.

"Hmm… When I was 3 and Renji called me stupid in front of the rest of the class. Then he revealed he had beaten me by .8%, which was terrible." Inui said, not looking anyone in the eye. "It was an art assignment. And my teacher told me that my cow was a nice picture of a puppy." He added. He seemed upset to remember that incident, while all the others were wondering if he was telling the truth.

Then Inui spun the bottle. It landed on Momo. He smiled slightly. "How did you confess to Ann?" This was the one question that Momo refused to answer, no matter what anyone did. Even Fuji's blackmailing didn't work (Momo's baby pictures ended up being spread around the school… That had taught everyone not to mess with Fuji. And also Momo had been mortified for a week.)

"I didn't…" He muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Fuji asked, smiling sadistically.

"I said. I didn't. Kamio-san and I were arguing then I asked her out based on a fit of anger. After that, we just somehow started dating," Momo half-yelled. Everyone looked at him in surprise. They had thought it had been rather sappy and sweet, but it turned out that Momo had not confessed to Ann after all.

Momo quickly spun the bottle, just to get other people's attention away from him. It landed on Kaidoh who quickly chose Dare. Momo smirked. "I dare you to call Tomoka and tell her you love her." The Regulars had long guessed that Kaidoh had a crush on the loud girl ever since he had saved her from drowning one time.

"Idiotic peach!" Kaidoh yelled, but he had no choice but to comply with Momo's wishes. He called Tomoka's number quickly (Fuji noted that it was on speed-dial). Once she picked up, he shouted "I love you" and hung up before she could even reply. Everyone laughed at his red face.

Grumbling about his Dare, Kaidoh spun the bottle. It landed on Eiji, who happily chose Dare, thinking that the shy boy would not dare him anything too crazy.

"I dare you to sit with Rini-senpai on your lap for the rest of the game." Kaidoh said, thinking quickly. Eiji laughed and Rini complied, laughing as well. A few people (Fuji, Momo and Rei) complained that they got off too lightly.

Eiji spun and it landed on Arisa. She chose Dare. Eiji and Rini discussed it for a minute then they gave her an evil look. She gulped and wondered if she would survive the joint planning.

"Since you haven't been kissed and Rini says it'll be mean for me to make you lose your first kiss from a game, I dare you to sit on Buchou's lap for the rest of the game, nya!" Eiji said. Niou immediately began protesting about how Sei-buchou would kill him if he found out. Tezuka was glaring at Eiji and Fuji had pulled a camera out from nowhere. Arisa was blushing furiously as she did the dare. She sat lightly on his knees and kept her body rigid.

Arisa spun the bottle and it landed on Fuji. She smiled as she realised she had the genius right where she wanted him.

"Dare." He said smiling at Arisa. She pouted. She had hoped he'd say truth so she could get blackmail material on him, but he was ready for that.

"Erm… I dare you to prank call Atobe Keigo!" Arisa said the first thing that came to her mind. He looked at her in surprise.

"I don't have his number."

"I do." Arisa gave Fuji his phone number.

"Pretend you want to order pizza nya!" Eiji said. Everyone agreed to that.

Once Atobe picked up his phone, Fuji began acting like he was placing an order. To cut a long story short, Atobe ended up very upset and everyone was muffling their laughter (it was on speaker phone, obviously). With one last "be awed by ore-sama's progress", he hung up angrily and everyone let out their pent-up laughter.

Then it was Fuji's turn to spin again. He spun and it landed on Godo. He smirked. Godo chose Truth. "Saa… Why don't you like Niou-san and Arisa-chan?" he asked. Godo had been glaring at them when their attention wasn't on him since they had arrived. Fuji wanted to know why.

"They're not what they seem. And they laugh too much." His voice was bitter and there was a sort of unresolved tension in his words, like there was more to the story, but no one wanted to press further, sensing it was personal.

Still, Fuji's question had made Arisa and Niou aware that Godo had some sort of back story that involved them. They wondered what it was, but neither of them said anything yet. Exchanging a glance, they agreed to discuss it after the game continued. Soon, it was quite late, so the group decided to turn in. Niou and Arisa slipped outside to talk for awhile. Most likely it was about Godo.

The rest of the team took a bath and headed to sleep. Arisa had told them that they had to be up and ready by 6 a.m. the next day. All of them that is, besides a certain curious tennis player who snuck out to hear what the two friends were saying under the moonlight.

* * *

_**AN:**_Hey! I'm not really happy with the way this chapter turned out, but I couldn't think of anything! Hope you enjoyed it anyway. Anyway, I've decided that I'll update once a week, on Friday or Saturday as I'm really busy right now. So until next time, review and let me know what you thought of the chapter!


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Arisa and Niou sat on a swing next to the tennis courts. The moon was half-full and the night sky was only slightly lit by the glimmer of stars. In the distance, one could hear the sound of soft waves sweeping over the sand. It was quite a romantic night out.

But the two weren't here for a romantic meeting. Arisa had dragged Niou out here because of something a team mate said.

"What do you think his deal is? Have we met him before?" Arisa asked Niou, kicking her legs lightly in the air. Her companion shook his head. He couldn't recall anyone with such dark skin or the name of Godo Mikio in their history.

"Nope, puri. I wonder why he said that we aren't what we seem. I didn't have any extra intentions coming here. I mean, I'm only here because Sei-buchou asked me to since he and fukubuchou couldn't leave the school. How about you piyo?" Niou asked her. She too shook her head. Neither of them could understand why Godo was so hostile towards them. They couldn't recall ever talking to him that much. According to Fuji, he had disliked them even before meeting them. While Niou wasn't too disturbed, seeing as his reputation preceded him, Arisa felt quite upset. She knew that not everyone would like her, but this was more just strange behaviour, it bordered on pure hatred. Godo wouldn't even pass her a tennis ball when she had asked. While she was used to people disliking her, she at least knew why.

The two swung in silence while thinking deeply about their problem. Meanwhile, in a thick bush, there was a whispered conversation going on. Apparently, there was more than one curious person in the area and they had all converged on that bush.

"Don't push me or my girlfriend nya!"

"Saa… Keep quiet, I can't hear."

"Iie Data!"

"Baka mamushi!"

"Fssshh… Senpai, can I go? This idiotic peach is so fat."

"Who are you calling fat huh? Mamushi!"

"Saa… If you don't keep quiet, you'll face the consequences!"

"…"

Arisa flipped her head up. Our beloved spies had forgotten her "legendary" hearing. She looked curiously at the talking bush. She was just about to walk over to see what was going on when Niou spoke.

"It's the same where ever we go, eh Ari? No matter what, when people say they want private conversation, someone must follow."

"And you're the worst one of the lot. But since we've been disturbed, I'll text you about it later. Goodnight Ru." Arisa caught on to what Niou was doing and turned to the bush. "Goodnight guys!" she called out and walked away, back to her room.

"Pupina." Niou walked away too, leaving the Regulars hanging. They collectively sighed and of course began blaming each other for making too much noise. Now they couldn't find out what was the relationship between Niou and Arisa and Godo. So they went back to their respective rooms to sleep.

* * *

Back in his room, a certain genius was watching his roommate text his friend. In his usual silent creepy way, he tried to read over said roommate's shoulder, but said roommate just turned his back, as if he had predicted Fuji's movement. Well, it wasn't as if it was particularly hard to predict.

"Saa… You're very close to Arisa-chan, aren't you?" Fuji asked, bored of cat and mouse. Niou nodded, still tapping away at his phone.

"How long have you known each other?" Fuji probed again.

"Around 14 years." Niou finally put his phone away.

"Do you like her?" Fuji asked. Niou caught on to his meaning and shook his head.

"She's like a sister to me. A very close and dear sister, but we're too close to be like that." Niou said. Fuji nodded. He could sense denial, but decided to leave it for now. After all, the training camp still had 2 days to go, and after that, there were still many more opportunities.

As the two went to sleep, many of the other tennis players in other rooms also went to sleep, except the room of Rei, Rini and Sui. They were having "girl time", they had asked Arisa to join them, but she had declined. So they were busy stalking other friends online. Then of course, they too eventually went to sleep.

* * *

The next day, Arisa was the first to wake up. Getting her tennis racket, she rushed outside to practice her rallies. And that was how the Regulars, Momo, and the other girls found her when they woke up. She was so caught up in her practice, that she didn't even notice them.

"Sorry about this, Arisa is funny in the sense that she needs to play tennis the moment she wakes up, or else she'll get very grumpy." Niou explained to the confused Regulars. He told them that she'll join them once she had worked out her frustrations, and he disappeared into the house.

After watching her rally some more, Momo decided that he'd better get breakfast started, or else the teacher might send him back to school. He wanted to listen to Arisa's training so that he might be able to get back onto the Regulars.

After about half a minute, the other Regulars decided to go inside. They walked in to see a drenched Momo holding a bucket with the word "pupina" on it. He was glaring at _Tezuka_? A Tezuka who was drinking coffee and sitting at the table while reading a book. But was it really Tezuka? Oishi looked next to him. There was a Tezuka next to him, but there was another Tezuka sitting at the table and drinking coffee. He nearly went insane trying to figure out what was going on.

At that moment, Arisa walked in, greeting everyone. Her sharp eyes took in the scene and she walked over to Tezuka-drinking-coffee. She pulled his hair and to everyone's surprise, it came off, revealing silver-blue hair in a rattail. They sighed as they realised it had been Niou. Still, what a way to start the morning! No wonder Rikkai were considered a crazy team. Arisa was now scolding a laughing Niou.

Breakfast was cereal, since none of the "chefs" had time to cook. Then it was out to the tennis courts for the Regulars. Momo had gotten special permission from the teacher (though everyone suspected Fuji had something to do with it) to join the tennis practices, but he would have to leave early to help cook.

"Okay! Today, we'll try out some doubles to see how your teamwork has improved since yesterday. Kikumaru-Oishi pair vs. Niou-Fuji pair on grass and Godo-Momo pair vs. Inui-Kaidoh pair on hard. Tezuka, you referee the grass courts yea? But first warming up. Use this time to discuss strategy with your partner." Arisa gave out her orders and they all hopped to it.

"Arisa-san, can you help me warm up?" Tezuka asked; his face as expressionless as always. She smiled and agreed to help him out. She was impressed by his dedication to the extent of warming up even though he wasn't playing. No wonder he had so much respect from the team. Then again, that was how most of the captains did it. They did at least double the training of the normal Regulars.

Tezuka cleared his throat, reminding Arisa that she was supposed to be warming up. She blushed and ran over to help him. First of all, they did basic stretches. Arisa pushed Tezuka's back to ensure he stretched those muscles properly and mentally marvelled at his muscular body. She then turned brilliant red and over pushed due to her sudden desire to back away from him. He looked at her curiously. In Arisa's mind, a string of curses was running through her brain. She was cursing Tezuka's tennis-toned body.

'Why does he have to be so fit? Those muscles! They're so smooth and hard and toned… And he's not bad looking either. Frankly, he's quite handsome… And dear me, those shoulders are so broad and strong. I'll bet he has nice abs too… Gah! What am I thinking? Arisa, get your mind out of the gutter right now! Stop picturing him without his shirt on… Oh hot dayumm, he's looking at me right now…' Arisa was berating herself mentally while Tezuka stared at her.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, going closer to her red face. "You're a bit red, do you have a fever?" he asked her, placing a large hand on her cheeks.

"Eep! I'm okay, I'm okay… No problem at all… Let's go back to training." Arisa squeaked out, her mind running on overdrive at Tezuka's close proximity.

Looking at her curiously, he continued his warm ups, now doing some push ups. As Arisa tried to collect her thoughts, she caught sight of his biceps and triceps flexing powerfully as he pushed his body up and down and up and down and up and down… She slapped herself lightly when she realised she was staring, immediately turning her back and biting her lip.

"Nya! Are you alright Risa-chan?" Eiji's bright voice called out to her. She turned to face the other Regulars, resolutely _avoiding_ Tezuka's direction, to smile and say she was fine. She was then treated to knowing looks from Niou, Fuji and Inui, as well as concerned looks from Eiji and Oishi. She blushed again and continued with her warm ups.

"Arisa-san, can you help me with my sit ups?" Tezuka asked. She looked around to see that indeed, everyone was doing sit ups. One partner would do the exercise while the other held onto their legs. She nodded at the very guy she had been trying to avoid looking at and moved to grab his legs.

Tezuka immediately began his sit ups. He was lying on his back while Arisa gripped him around his knees. His powerful abs contracted and he rose to a sitting position. Arisa, who was staring pointedly at his knees suddenly blushed and blinked at him. Their faces were only an inch apart and she could feel his breath on her skin. Biting her lip, she bent her head as Tezuka lay back down. Again and again, the cycle repeated as Tezuka did his 100 sit ups. Each time he completed one, his face would be dangerously close to hers and she could see the tiny beads of sweat forming on his skin. She was turning into a tomato!

Luckily, Tezuka soon finished his sit ups. He didn't seem to be as affected as Arisa by the exercise, thanking her politely before going to run his laps. However, Inui recorded in his notebook that Tezuka had finished the exercise 2% faster than normal and his laps were 3% faster.

* * *

AN: This weeks update! Hope you enjoyed it... I was chatting to my friends about the sit up scene in Secret Garden (the Korean drama) and this chapter popped into my head. The second half anyway. So erm... Review?


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Soon, the training camp's first day was over. Besides the Inui-Kaidoh, Kikumaru-Oishi, Niou-Fuji and Godo-Momo pairs, Arisa also tried out Inui-Oishi (actually pretty good), Kikumaru-Fuji (Dream Pair!), Godo-Niou (terrible, worse than Momo and Echizen's first try at doubles) and Tezuka-Kaidoh (Actually another pretty good doubles pairing, but the teamwork was stronger in the Inui-Kaidoh pairing).

"Okay everyone, good job today! Over the next 2 days, we'll be trying out some other pairings to find the best fit. So keep working hard! Let's break for lunch now. We'll do stamina and muscle training after some more time together. Let's go!" she announced. She seemed rather fond of the talking sessions between them all.

They headed to the showers and as usual, Tezuka finished first. He slipped outside to take a short walk along the beach before lunch. However, he caught sight of Arisa sitting on the swings nearby, apparently deep in thought. He stood to one side and watched her, unsure if he should go talk to her (cause that would mean _talking_ and Tezuka doesn't talk… much). She sighed and shook her head as if she was trying to clear it.

He walked over just as Arisa stood up, still lost in thought, bumping into him. His arms immediately wrapped around her to prevent her imminent fall. She turned red and backed away quickly, apologizing like there was no tomorrow. Tezuka looked on, slightly amused. He admitted that he was intrigued by the girl. She had a sense of mystery around her. Perhaps he was just thinking too much, but he still wondered about her. Though her answers to the questions about her past were all answered with her customary smile, she often seemed like she was editing the truth. Not lying, but not telling the entire truth either. Honestly, that quirk just made Tezuka wonder more about her. It was like she was hiding something and Tezuka really wanted to find out what it was.

Blushing, she ran away from Tezuka. He looked at her retreating back curiously and followed her inside for lunch. Inside, the Regulars were all getting along well. Niou was teasing Momo and Kaidoh about being "a cute couple" and Eiji was adding fuel to the fire while Oishi tried to stop them. Even though they had only been on this "team bonding" camp for a day, Tezuka could already see the difference.

"They're really getting on a lot better now aren't they?" Fuji asked Tezuka. He nodded and they all settled down for lunch. It was sponsored by Sui's family, a reasonably well-known catering company. It was delicious.

* * *

After lunch, it was back to more "team bonding". Arisa had them write each other's strengths on a piece of paper, anonymously of course. Then they took turns to read from what others said about them. Most of the comments were very nice, except Niou had gotten one that said "good-for-nothing. No strengths besides killing people who others care about." That effectively made the normally teasing Trickster turn white, clench his fist and leave the room. Arisa followed her friend. Since no one had any idea what to do, Tezuka decided to continue with Arisa's plans for the doubles.

He paired Oishi and Kaidoh against Fuji and Momo, interested in how this would work. The others were told to watch. However, he could tell that neither pair was particularly interested in the match, so he let them off. Fuji dragged him along to spy on the others, but at that moment Arisa came back. She walked up to them.

"Whoever it was who wrote that, it wasn't very nice. Haru's never killed anyone, even the girls he rejected never committed suicide. I hope that you don't do such a thing again, to him or anyone else on the team. We all have to trust each other. That's why we're here, at this camp. So please, if you have any personal grudge against him, talk to him about it personally. Now let's get back to training." She said. She seemed rather out of things, almost as if she had been the one who had been insulted.

She paired them up and told them to play matches, but as Tezuka slaughtered his opponents, he looked at the girl standing on the side, concerned about her.

* * *

After practice, Tezuka went for a walk along the beach, finally getting around to it. Arisa had rushed off after practice; everyone suspected she went to talk to Niou. So imagine Tezuka's surprise when he came across her sitting on a log, looking out at the sea. He had been just about to walk away when he saw a tear sliding down her face.

"Arisa-san?" he asked quietly, not wanting to startle her. She turned her face towards him, her eyes were filled with tears. She quickly brushed them away, and turned away. He asked her if she was okay and she turned to look at him again.

"Tezuka-san, does anything ever change? Do we just keep moving on, even though we're just going to keep going and going without ever changing? Is our fate to keep hurting people?" She turned back to the sea and Tezuka took that as an invitation to sit next to her.

"What do you mean by that?" he said haltingly, unsure of the words to say.

"I don't know…It's just, every time I try, things turn out weird. People get hurt because of me and I don't know what to do. It's like no matter how I try, they'll always get in the way. I want to protect my friends, but I can't. I am a bad person, Tezuka-san, and Godo was right. I'm not who I seem to be. But I wish I was." She turned to look at him.

"Have you ever felt that way? Like you want, more than anything, to be able to see the one you care about smile, yet because of your own selfishness, that person gets hurt? And you hurt them again and again, though they've done nothing wrong? I'm sure you haven't, because you're good. But imagine if you did, would you be able to look yourself in the mirror, knowing you're a terrible excuse for a person? Could you admire a guy, thinking he's fit and handsome, yet knowing that by doing so, you're hurting another? That you stole your best friend's lover away, and because of you, your best friend can't even see their love again? That you caused them pain?" she said.

"Tezuka-san, I'm sorry. I've said too much. I will not burden you anymore." Arisa said, just as he opened his mouth to answer, and ran off, leaving Tezuka behind.

* * *

Tezuka was the kind of guy to rarely be befuddled. Still, Arisa's tears and her words discombobulated him. He wasn't sure what she was saying and that made him feel uncomfortable. He was also confused by her sudden running away. Had he done something wrong? Should he have said something?

Tezuka wasn't one of those people who could talk about feelings, or even just talk without feeling out of his comfort zone, but he found himself heading to Arisa's room to talk to her. He felt slightly guilty, though he wasn't sure what it was for. Perhaps it was because he had promised himself to be more sociable in high school, or perhaps it was because he had wanted her to open up to him (mainly because he was curious about her tennis… and her mysterious past). Still, it was an abnormality that Tezuka was standing in front of her door and knocking on it before dinner time.

Arisa opened it, her eyes still slightly red. As Tezuka looked at her, he wondered why some guys said girls looked prettier when they cried. Arisa's face looked something out of a horror scene to be honest. Her eyes were red and bloody, her nose could rival Rudolph's in redness and her cheeks were stained with tears. Upon seeing Tezuka, she immediately tried to wipe her face and smile though. Clearly she had been expecting someone else.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" Tezuka said, then immediately cursed himself for a great opener.

"Uh… No, it's okay, did you need me for something?" Arisa asked, trying her best to appear normal.

He asked her to take a walk with him and the two headed out to the tennis courts. As they walked around the courts, Tezuka finally found the words to say.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. She sighed.

"I suppose… I'm sorry for burdening you with my problems just now, but I just… I made a mistake. I talk too much sometimes and normally around this time of the year I'll be like this, so I'm sorry for that. It's just emotions tend to get the best of me, and I don't know what I'm doing, and it feels all wrong, but I just… need someone… to talk to sometimes, and you just happened to be there, so I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry… I will like to be there for you, if you need me. I… I want to be your friend." Tezuka said. He had no idea what had just come out from his mouth.

"Tezuka-san… You… friend… Tezuka-san, then please call me Arisa-chan? Since we're friends?" Arisa held his large hand in her own smaller, but still calloused hand. She looked up at him and smiled a small smile.

"Call me Kunimitsu then. Since we're friends… And Arisa-chan, don't ever hesitate if you need to talk to me… I want to know… about you, and your past." He said softly, unused to asking anyone to call him by his given name (the only person, other than his family was Fuji, who had one day started calling him that, after Tezuka had called him Syuusuke of course).

"My past, I don't speak of it. And not around this time, though it's the best time to speak of it. But though I value our friendship as it stands now, I cannot. I can't talk about it. Maybe someday, but not yet. I'm sorry Te… I mean Kunimitsu-kun" Arisa smiled at him and changed the subject, talking instead about the courts and their team. Tezuka just let her change the subject, but now more than before, he wanted to know more about her.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

After Arisa cleaned up a bit and got ready for dinner, the two "new" friends walked down to the dining hall together. To their surprise, Inui was slumped on a table and was gently shredding pages of his notebook.

"Inui! What happened?" Tezuka used his "I'm-your-captain-so-tell-me-what's-going-on" tone. He mumbled something about data being wrong and untrustworthy. Tezuka called Oishi over to explain what had happened.

"Well, Niou-kun told him that his data on Arisa was all wrong, and he began to get a little crazy with his juices, but he started being like this after he found out Fuji had developed immunity to Aozu." Oishi explained.

Arisa sat next to Inui and prodded him. "If you like, you can interview me and get all the correct data. After all, everyone knows magazines warp the truth…"

He immediately sat up. This was too good an opportunity to pass up. Though he was still hurt that his blackmail over Fuji had dissipated, this was DATA! He pulled out his notebook.

"Ok, true or false, your name is Yukimura Arisa." He asked, clearly planning on ensuring each iota of his data was flawless this time around.

"Yes. It is." She said.

"Next, is your hair purple and are your eyes blue?" Arisa just nodded, bemused.

"Are you 160 cm tall? Also, what is your weight?" Inui asked.

"Yes, I'm that tall, and don't you know it's impolite to ask a girl her weight? I'm not going to answer that." Arisa said. Inui mumbled something about her _really _refusing to let people know her weight. A slight pause later Inui asked his next question.

"Did you start playing tennis at 6 months old?"

"No, where did you hear that from? I started at 2 and a half years old… But if we're talking about six months, I played with tennis equipment since then. Like I'll gnaw on tennis balls and push them around…" Arisa said startled. She was starting to suspect Marui and Niou had spread rumours around, Niou probably did it for fun, Marui probably did it because Niou did. They were such troublesome guys, at least last year Kirihara wasn't with them in high school yet…

"Hmm… Did you join and win your first tournament at age 6 in the under-16 males category?" Inui asked, interrupting her train of thought.

"Yeap. Well, I didn't win, I got runner-up. The top 6 players in that competition had missed the competition though, so I had it easier." Arisa clarified.

"Hmm… you've already clarified that you have not joined the U-17 camp… Ah, have you won 2 Grand Slam titles, 5 French Open titles, 3 Wimbledon titles, 3 Australian Open titles and 2 US Open titles at by the age of 10?"

"Yes. 1st Grand Slam win was in mixed doubles with a much older and more experienced partner when I was 8. The other was singles when I was 9. The French Open titles were in mixed doubles and singles when I was 8 and 9, and the final one was in singles when I was 10. The Wimbledon titles I won in mixed doubles when I was 8 and 9, and singles when I was 9. Same goes for the Australian Open titles. The US Open titles were in mixed doubles and singles at 8 and 9 respectively. I played in the female category, not males, like most people think. My only matches against males were in the mixed doubles." She explained.

"The rest of my data you proven correct or false by yourself, but I would like to ask, how did you skip a year when most reports say that you do not pay attention in classes?" Inui asked his final question.

"Well, when I was young, my parents thought I was going to play tennis professionally for the rest of my life, so I was home tutored. I learnt to study on my own as my tutors believed in self-study. So now I can't study in a normal school environment, but I need to study at home. I normally study 2-5 hours depending…" she explained.

"I see. Iie data!" Inui was back to his normal self, much to everyone's relief. Everyone except Fuji that is. Inui began muttering about a new-and-improved version of Aozu, just for Fuji. The genius was not very happy with that, but he was interested to see how this latest drink would turn out.

With that, everything turned back to normal. Well, as normal as a bunch of tennis-crazy high-schoolers could get. Inui was bothering everyone for data, Fuji was being a sadist, Tezuka was practicing being a rock, Eiji was high on sugar and only Rini could calm him down, Oishi was worrying, Kaidoh and Momo were fighting, Godo was busy plotting everyone's demise, Niou was learning everyone's quirks so he could imitate them and Arisa was busy doing her "stare-of-into-the-distance-and-look-brooding" thing. Everything was all perfectly normal. Well, except that the team captain was looking at their manager a little more often than usual. In fact, Inui recorded that it was 0.85% more than normal.

* * *

Soon, the training camp was done. Inui and Kaidoh were chosen as doubles 2. Niou and Fuji were chosen as backups as they worked the best with everyone else. Arisa was very pleased with the improvement in the Regulars as well. Though they had always been a "family" of sorts, now they actually talked about _feelings_. All in all, the camp was quite worth it, in her opinion anyway.

Back at school, the Regulars were working hard to catch up on their lessons as well as keep up with tennis practices. It was all in all quite an experience to train under Arisa. As Niou once joked, if she had been allowed to keep an eagle, they'll all be suffering from pecks. Apparently this would have been almost a possibility. Her ex-coach had tried to give her an eagle as a parting gift, but luckily she wasn't allowed to keep it by her parents. While Arisa wasn't as fond as Tezuka at giving laps, she came up with some terrible punishments that made even Fuji cringe and the others long for Inui juice.

Still, not all was well at the famed Seigaku tennis club. Godo, while at least tolerating the others (compared to the dislike before), still hated Niou and Arisa with a passion and refused to even talk to them. He did listen to Arisa and her crazy training, he just hated her. No one knew why, but they suspected that it was deeply personal. But all in all they shook down well.

Tezuka was now Arisa's "friend". Everyone had gaped in surprise when Arisa had called him Kunimitsu. Now she had shortened it to Mitsu-kun, which, while embarrassing for him, was better than his rival Sanada Genichirou's nickname of "Gen-chan". The two got on surprisingly well, as they bonded over tennis and well, _more_ _tennis._ Still, tennis obviously has the power to bring people closer together.

The other Regulars were also getting closer to Niou and Arisa. Most of them had accepted them into their little "family". With the addition of Arisa to the team, Rini now had more excuse to see her boyfriend during school hours. She didn't feel as awkward as she was no longer the only girl in a group of boys (Rei refused to go near Oishi as she always started to resemble a tomato when she was near him). So Rini also became closer to the other Regulars. Well, as close as Eiji would let them, he was still very overprotective of his girlfriend.

So, as the team grew ever closer, the competitions also came nearer and nearer. The team was excited and happy as they prepared, but as they did, none of them expected the events that were waiting for them before they could even get to the competition.

* * *

It had been two weeks since the Regulars came back and they were finally done with their makeup classes. Arisa sighed as she happily packed her bags, glad to be going home at a reasonable hour at last. As much as she enjoyed the camp, she would have to think twice before organising such things again.

As she waited for the boys to be done with their showers while reviewing her notes with Tezuka as usual, one of the club members came up to her. He told her that there was a girl from another school at the gate waiting for her. She had been coming for the past week, but Arisa hadn't been around due to the extra classes. Arisa got up and prepared to follow him.

"Shall I follow you?" Tezuka asked.

"Nah, it's ok Mitsu-kun, I'll be back soon. Just let Niou know if he asks where I am okay?" Arisa said with a smile, going out. Tezuka trusted her to come back as she had left all her things in the clubroom.

Arisa walked to the gate quickly, wondering who her mysterious visitor was, and was shocked to see a familiar face waiting for her at the gate. She had never thought she'd see Tayama Kunie again.

AN: OMG! I am soo sorry about the two week delay. This chapter was actually finished on time, but as I just finished my exams and had to organise my school's end-of-the-year party, I didn't get the chance to post! Well, again, I'm sorry to make you wait, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Tayama Kunie stood in all her Rikkai glory in front of Arisa. Everyone else had left besides the tennis Regulars, and they were in the club room. She looked around to see if Tayama had brought her customary backup, but it seemed like today it was just the two of them.

Arisa had the shock of her life when Tayama suddenly knelt before her and started crying.

"I'm sorry, Yukimura-san. I'm sorry. I only found out today what Ando-san was doing to you and your brother. I'm so sorry for what I did, and I know that I cannot be forgiven for hurting you so much, but I just want you to know that I am deeply sorry. I had no idea that things were so bad for you, with the troubles last time and everything. And when I should've been friends with you, I let my jealousy take over and I did everything Ando-san told me to. I was wrong and I just wanted to tell you my sincerest apologises." Tayama cried, making Arisa feel extremely awkward.

"Please stand up Tayama-san. I acknowledge your apology, but I cannot forgive you yet. I know you weren't involved with my brother's poisoning, but you still hurt me and threatened me. Still, I hope you have learnt from your mistakes and I hope you will never do anything like that again. Maybe one day I can forgive you, now that you have apologised, but I can't do that yet. I'm not that big hearted." Arisa said to the remorseful girl. While Arisa hated her for what she did, she could tell Tayama was being sincere with her apology. However, while she could acknowledge it, it was still too painful to let Tayama be forgiven. Besides, honestly, Arisa still resented the other girl for scarring her body and her mind.

"Thank you Yukimura-san. I truly am sorry. I am a coward, I wanted to apologize since last year, but I was scared that you wouldn't believe me. I had really been bad to you, and I'm sorry. I'm moving to Osaka tomorrow though, which is why I finally got the courage to come see you. I… I didn't want to leave with things being the way they were. So thank you for being kind enough to accept my apology. I wish you the best." Tayama said, leaving.

Arisa stood there for a while, reliving the bad memories. She had always thought that Tayama never seemed as evil as the things she did, but the fact was, she had done those things to Arisa and Arisa was not kind enough to forgive the girl. She wasn't big hearted at all… But the best part of it was that now she could let go of the past, knowing that Tayama was sincerely apologetic. Maybe one day… Maybe, Arisa could forgive her. Arisa felt her heart warm at that thought.

"Arisa-chan? The guys are done with the shower now." Tezuka came to call her. "Is everything alright?" he asked, noticing that she had been standing alone at the gate with no one in sight. He looked at her flushed face and slightly teary eyes in alarm.

"Yea, I'm fine… Just someone I know wanted to say some things to me before she left to Osaka…" Arisa said smiling lightly at Tezuka. She had her school-personality on now. He nodded and being the silent guy he was, didn't press further.

As the two walked back to the club room, Arisa asked Tezuka if he would like to join her and Niou to play at the street tennis courts in an hour and have dinner with both of them after, as a thank you for all he had done for her. Though he rarely did that, he agreed to meet them as it was a Friday. She smiled at him and he could've sworn his heart skipped a beat.

* * *

After they went home Tezuka quickly finished his homework before telling his mother he would be going out for dinner. His mother dropped her cup (she had been drinking tea) in utter shock. Her son was willingly going out on a Friday night? She couldn't believe it. Since this was such a rare occurrence, she found herself asking if it was a date. She was holding her breath as Tezuka considered her words.

"No." Her son said as he walked out the door, crushing his mother's dream of grandchildren anytime soon. Still, she was happy enough that her socially awkward son was going out on a Friday night. It seemed like he was finally loosening up.

Tezuka on the other hand, was beginning to doubt his decision to go out on a Friday night. He still had 3 chapters of his book to read, but he was out with friends. That was an abnormality. Still, when Arisa had asked him that with her teary eyes, he found that he couldn't say no to her. It would have been like saying no to a puppy. This was the reason why he was now making his way to the street tennis courts.

When he arrived, he was shocked to see many of Japan's best and brightest tennis players gathered there, challenging each other. In one court, Niou and Yagyuu Hiroshi had paired up against Momo and Echizen Ryoma in a doubles match. Apparently it was a match of separated best friends. Tezuka smiled to himself, careful not to show any expression. While Momo and Echizen were fast friends, they still sucked at doubles. On the other hand, Niou and Yagyuu had played together for a long time. They had yet to lose an official match when paired together and were considered the best doubles pair in Japan currently. They had even beaten Seigaku's doubles one last year at the Nationals as they had achieved Synchro. Even without Inui's data, Tezuka could guess the outcome of the match.

Tezuka wandered around a little, seeing who else had gathered there. Fuji was playing Mizuki from St Rudolph while chatting to his brother. From what Tezuka could tell, Fuji was pretending he was playing with a wall while chatting to his younger brother, making Mizuki's loss all the more humiliating. As Tezuka watched, Fuji won the match and acted surprised that it had been a match, saying that he had no idea that Michuji (After 2 years he still pretended not to know Mijuli- sorry, I mean Mizuki's name) was playing against him. As expected from a sadistic genius.

In another court, Oishi and Eiji were playing against Shishido and Ootori from Hyotei. Atobe and Kabaji were there too, watching the two pairs play a friendly match. Finally, in the last court, Sanada was watching Kirihara play Oshitari Yuushi. There were a lot of excellent tennis players gathered at these courts.

"Tezuka!" Eiji suddenly noticed him. Everyone stopped and stared at him, wondering if what they saw was real. Tezuka cleared his throat awkwardly and greeted Eiji seriously. As if his words were an invitation, everyone suddenly crowded around him like he was a new species at a zoo.

"Sorry I'm late everyone!" Arisa's voice called out as she ascended the stairs to the place, her brother at her side. Tezuka breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the interrogation had been postponed. The others greeted the pair like they came here often, so Tezuka gathered that it wasn't unusual for this group to meet up on Fridays. He wondered what else he had missed by being antisocial.

"Let's play some tennis…" Yukimura said, smiling at the crowd. They all agreed and began discussing who was going to play, completely forgetting that they had been playing matches just a while before. It was agreed that they would continue the matches they had been playing before, except this time Fuji would be playing Atobe instead of Mizuki (Fuji called him Miltize).

Tezuka watched his teammates enjoying themselves and realised that he was quite happy with the way things were turning out this evening. He discussed tennis with the people who weren't playing and had a chance to see the techniques of other players as well. He found that perhaps socialising once in a while wasn't such a bad idea and thanked Arisa for inviting him. Still, he had a shock when she told him the night wasn't over yet.

After a while, a few others arrived and more matches were played. Only friendly competition though. As the competitions were nearing, no one wanted to show their full potential yet.

Tezuka did a quick headcount as Atobe announced it was time for dinner. From Seigaku there was Arisa, Niou, Fuji, Momo, Oishi, Eiji, Inui, Echizen and himself, from Hyotei there was Atobe, Ootori, Shishido, Oshitari Yuushi, Kabaji and Jirou (who was sleeping), from St Rudolph, there was Mizuki (who Fuji was now calling purple-freak-who-I-have-never-seen-before) and Fuji Yuuta, Fuji's younger brother and from Rikkai, there was Yukimura Seiichi (Arisa's brother), Yagyuu, Marui, Kirihara, Sanada and Yanagi Renji. There were a total of 23 people. He wondered where they were going to go eat (since apparently they were all going together).

**_AN: _**I'm going to refer to the older sibling (eg. Yukimura Seiichi, Fuji Syuusuke etc) by their family name (Yukimura, Fuji etc) because it is easier to think of and type, as that's what they're called in the anime. Hope it isn't too confusing!


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The 22 tennis Regulars from each school and Arisa were in a limousine. One of Atobe's to be precise. Tezuka was sitting in between Arisa and Sanada. Arisa was chatting with Atobe brightly. It seemed like they knew each other quite well, given that Arisa called him Keigo. The other Regulars also seemed like they knew Arisa quite well.

During a break in Arisa and Atobe's conversation, Tezuka quietly asked her how she knew the other players. Rikkai was obvious, but St Rudolph and Hyotei weren't so easily explained. She smiled at him, obviously in a good mood.

"Atobe's family sponsored me last time, so I got to know him quite well. When I was in England for Wimbledon, he and Kabaji used to visit me and sometimes play with me. When I came back to Japan, I still continued to meet up with them and I got to know them all. Choutarou-kun especially, because he tried to teach me music, but I'm terrible at it. Mizuki and Yuuta I know from St Rudolph. I studied there in middle school. Yuuta and I are best friends and he was my first kiss and we lost our virginity on Mizuki's bed. Right, Yuuta?" She said smiling at Mizuki, Yuuta and Fuji who were listening in.

"What! No way! We're best friends, but we never kissed! And we certainly never did _that!_" Yuuta exclaimed, his face turning red. Mizuki was exclaiming about how he slept in that bed and that they were messed up kids. Even some of those who weren't listening were asking Yuuta about it. Arisa really knew how to drop a bombshell. Tezuka regarded Fuji carefully, knowing how overprotective the older boy was about his beloved younger brother, but to his surprise, Fuji laughed.

"If you're trying to trick me, I know it's not true because at camp I specifically asked you if you'd been kissed and you said no. Also, that time we chatted, you told me that you were waiting for marriage." He told Arisa smiling. Tezuka guessed that it had been a trick and actually gave a small sigh of relief which luckily no one heard. It would have been bad if they did, especially as Tezuka was unsure about his feelings for Arisa. They had been getting closer the past few weeks, and he found himself wanting to spend more time with her, as well as the physical attraction between them, but he was unsure about whether he liked her _that_ way or not.

"Guess I'd have to try harder to trick a genius then." Arisa sighed after dispelling the queries from the other tennis players. She leaned onto Atobe's shoulder. He patted her on her head, much to Seigaku's Regulars' surprise. They had thought Atobe would've pushed her off or something like that.

"Where are we going for dinner?" Oshitari asked Atobe suddenly. He hadn't been participating in the conversation, opting to stare out the window instead.

"Ore-sama's house. My father has requested to see her today." Atobe said patting Arisa's head again. Arisa sat up. She seemed surprised.

"Me? What for?" she asked, shifting her body so she could see Atobe's face. Somehow that meant she was half in Tezuka's lap. He shifted uncomfortably. Sanada was on his other side however, so he couldn't even move over.

Apparently, Atobe didn't know what his father wanted with her, so she let it slide and sat back in her seat properly. Tezuka breathed a light sigh of relief for the second time that day. Then, he stiffened again as Arisa leaned over him to talk to Sanada, who she called "Gen-chan", much to the amusement of everyone. Tezuka shifted slightly to ensure she wasn't leaning against him, feeling slightly awkward at her close proximity. Yes, they were friends, but Tezuka still wasn't used to "skin ship" as they called it. All in all, that was quite an uncomfortable ride for the stoic captain.

"We're here." Atobe announced grandly as they pulled up into the gateway of Atobe's mansion. Though most of them had been there before, they were still in awe of the extensive and expensive building.

Inside, Arisa was led away by the butler while the rest followed Atobe to his wing (his parents decided that he should have a wing when he reached high school to "practice independence"). Tezuka looked once in the direction Arisa was leaving in then turned to follow Atobe. He didn't want to get lost in this large mansion.

* * *

Dinner was served half an hour later, but Arisa was nowhere to be seen. Yukimura and Atobe didn't seem to be bothered by her disappearance, so everyone settled down to eat. However, Tezuka was uneasy. He wondered what had happened to Arisa. Still, it would have been impolite to refuse to eat dinner so he sat down with the others, keeping an eye on the door just in case.

Half-way through the meal, Arisa came in through the door behind Tezuka. She had changed out of her tennis outfit and was wearing a long dark blue gown with long sleeves that highlighted her blue eyes. Her hair had been put up elegantly and her normally bare face was highlighted with makeup. She seemed like she was uncomfortable and had trouble walking. When she took a step, it became apparent that she was wearing high heels and couldn't balance properly. Still, she looked like a high society girl. Tezuka supposed the dress she was wearing had some expensive label by some expensive designer, but honestly, he wouldn't know (it not being either studies or tennis related after all). Even so, to his untrained eye, Arisa looked good in the dress, though he preferred her in her usual tennis gear.

She walked around to Tezuka, nearly falling over 4 times (she only took 6 steps). He looked up at her in surprise. Atobe had reserved a seat for her next to him, so he found it strange that she was standing next to him. He looked around the table and realised that his seat was the closest to the door she entered by. Everyone was staring at them curiously.

"Kunimitsu-kun, can you come with me?" she asked in an undertone. When he looked properly, it almost seemed as if she had tears in her eyes. He quickly nodded and stood up, politely excusing himself. Everyone stared at their retreating backs.

Once out the door, Arisa took off her shoes, surprising Tezuka as she muttered about hating heels. Being a stoic and patient man, he waited for her tirade against Jimmy Choo and high heels in general to end so he could satisfy his curiosity. He had to admit, he really wanted to know why Atobe Senior had asked to see Arisa for such a long time. Arisa grabbed his hand and pulled him to the poolside.

"Mitsu-kun, I'm sorry for interrupting your dinner, but I needed a friend to talk to and well, I trust you a lot. Normally, I would talk to my brother or Niou about this, but I already know what they'll say… This isn't the first time. So, I was wondering if… if you could help me with this problem I've been having for a while now… Almost 6 years to be exact…" she was looking up at the sky with a wistful expression on her face, but the lights from the pool illuminated her tears. Tezuka decided that he should listen to her.

"Tell me what's wrong." He said, looking at the girl in front of him. On impulse, he put his hand out and wiped away a single tear that had fallen from her left eye. She turned to look at him.

"It's a long story... But can you keep it a secret?" she asked him. Tezuka nodded. He kept many secrets, one more wouldn't hurt.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"It's a long story... But can you keep it a secret?" she asked him. Tezuka nodded. Arisa took a deep breath and began her tale.

"Atobe's father started sponsoring me when I just started going pro. He was the reason why I could do that, noticing my ability from a young age. He had seen me playing in a park one day and asked me if I wanted to go pro. I agreed, well who wouldn't. It was hard, and I had no friends besides my brother, Niou and my doubles' partner, but it was fulfilling. And I have to thank Atobe-san for that. Anyway, just now he asked me to do a photo shoot on the beach. He wanted me to help advertise his new tennis facility on the beach, connected to one of the hotels they own. Normally I do help out with the sports advertisements, but as an advisor only. But this time he wants me to actually model instead of just telling other people what to do. He says that it'll be good because I'm appeared in a few magazines again." She said.

"Why not?" Tezuka asked. It sounded pretty simple to him. She had done it before, as proved by the magazines he had somewhere in his house, so why couldn't she do it now? He looked at her all dressed up and thought that frankly, he wouldn't mind seeing her in a poster or something now. She had grown into her looks somewhat and even though her mouth was still a little lopsided and her teeth had a little gap in between them, her smile was even brighter (or was that because he saw it outside a photograph now).

Arisa turned to look at him, as if assessing his trustworthiness. She seemed to deem him trustworthy as she began talking again.

"This time, it's a beach photo-shoot. Atobe-san wants me to wear a bikini and play tennis on the beach. He… wants me to play against… against an opponent from last time. I… I have a history with her, that I'd rather not remember, and I don't want to see her again. And… I'm not comfortable with my body… I don't want to show it to anyone, let alone pose for a photo shoot… especially not in a _bikini, _or even a I don't want to disappoint Atobe-san when he's done so much for me…I mean I don't look glamorous or anything. I can't pose, I can't tilt my head like those models can and I hate cameras on me. I mean, I guess I'm reasonably pretty, but I'm not gorgeous. With the pay Atobe-san offered, he could hire a current professional, like that lady… what's her name? The one who just won the grand slam… I mean, she's _beautiful._ And her figure is so perfect…" she was rambling.

"Why not? You're a very beautiful girl, but if you don't feel comfortable doing it, I think you should just tell him that, so if he really wants you to model, he can think of something else." Tezuka said in his practical way. He supposed that her insecurities about her body were from the cutting incidents Sanada had told him about earlier that year. Arisa looked at him with bright eyes.

"Really? I didn't think of that… Thanks Mitsu-kun! But… there's still the problem about who he wants me to do it with… Honestly, I don't think I can face up to her. I hate her!" Arisa's mood changed completely as she remembered the other problem she had.

He looked at the only girl he could have a decent conversation with. She was lightly kicking the surface of the water that was gently rippling in the moonlight and her head was bent. A shimmering tear was gently making its way down her cheek. On impulse, Tezuka reached up and brushed it away. She looked up at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Suddenly, she found herself wrapped in warm arms.

"Mitsu-kun…" She said looking up at the expressionless face in surprise. He never hugged anyone, not even his mother, according to Fuji and Inui (and they would know, given their stalker-ish tendencies).

"If you need to cry, just cry, I'll be here for you." He said softly. "I know that sometimes it's hard to talk about things, so I won't push you to tell me what's wrong. Just… I'm here for you, okay? Not just today, but any day. We're a tennis team, and we'll stick together." He patted her head gently. She gave him a watery smile and buried her head in his strong chest, drawing strength from him as he continued patting her on her head.

She felt glad to have become friends with Tezuka, he knew exactly what to say to her when she was feeling down or depressed. He knew how to make her smile, even though he rarely did it himself. He knew her worries about the team and about their prospects against her old team and he knew just how to make her feel better. She found herself opening up to him, more than she had to anyone besides her brother and Niou since the Incident (as she called it in her mind). She found herself drawn to his stoic personality, wondering how anyone could be so strong in the face of adversity. She wanted him to open himself up to her as much as she wanted to open herself up to him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't want him to be hurt. She was scared because the walls she built just crumpled under his strong and firm personality. As she wept on him, soaking the rough cloth of his shirt with her tears, she pondered all these thoughts and more, letting pent up emotions out.

While Arisa thought her thoughts, Tezuka was thinking too as he patted her head in what he thought was a comforting gesture. He hated to see her like this, weak and broken. Though she didn't know it, he had seen her crying a few times, concealing himself before she noticed him. Each time, his heart ached for her, and he didn't know why. He had a feeling that his feelings for her had surpassed just mere friendship now, but what was it then? Best friendship? He felt so at ease around her. She seemed to accept him for him, just like the other Regulars did. Yet he felt himself smiling more around her, like the walls he had built up had tumbled down and he had to pull away before he showed her everything his soul had to offer. Yet as they became closer, he found himself becoming more and more relaxed around her, just being himself, not having to be the Captain or the Top Student or The Pillar of Seigaku. With her, he could be himself, he could make mistakes, and he didn't have to be the perfect him everyone thought he was.

He knew she was hurt, he knew that she had been bullied. He knew that she tried to be strong, and smiled through her pain. However, he also knew that she shut people out and refused to let them in because she was afraid of appearing weak. She never cried in public, except that one time she was transferring to Seigaku, and now she was opening up to him. He felt glad, but hated that something was causing her pain. He knew what it felt like to be closed off and he wanted to be there for her, so that maybe he could open up to her as well. He didn't want her eyes to hold that unspeakable sadness and hurt.

He wondered what had happened in her past that had made her so defensive. He had watched her talking with Niou a few times, and she often shut him out as well. Tezuka wanted to be able to let her talk to him, to have her trust him enough to tell him her secrets, but she was still not talking about her past. When asked, she just brushed people away, saying that it wasn't really that interesting. He just wanted to see her smile without any falseness about it.

They just stood like that for awhile, with his arms around her as she cried out her pain, the water rippling in the moonlight beside them. Both of them were immersed in their own thoughts and didn't notice that a few pairs of eyes were watching them from inside the house, looking at the somewhat romantic scene.

AN: Double update to apologise for the late update.. Also because this will be the last update for the year. I'll be on holiday and starting at my new school soon, so I won't have the time to update until mid-January. Sorry! Thanks to all those who have subscribed and reviewed, it really makes me happy and willing to write. Anyway, hope you have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


	22. AN

Hey everyone,

I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, but I will be discontinuing this fic because of unforeseen circumstances... I really wish I could continue this, but I can't. So I really apologize.

I would like to thank all those who have faithfully read,reviewed, subscribed and waited for each of my uploads. I'm sorry for doing the really annoying thing of discontinuing this fic. If anyone would like to adopt it, PM me to let me know. I promise I'll wish you the best of luck with it. ^^

Anyway, this is the end of Forgiveness as written by me. Thank you for all the reviews and everything! I'll forever remember this.

-DustyFoxes


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